Statement: NYC-DSA Denounces Cuts to Vital City Services
For Immediate Release: December 26, 2022
Contact: press@socialists.nyc
Statement: NYC-DSA Denounces Cuts to Vital City Services
NEW YORK, N.Y. — We condemn Mayor Eric Adams’ devastating proposed cuts to institutions and services that sustain working-class New Yorkers. Despite a surplus of over $2 billion this fiscal year, the Mayor’s proposed budget modification for FY23 guts funding to New York city’s public libraries and universities, while dramatically increasing debt service payments. During the worst cost of living crisis in 40 years, the Mayor’s proposed cuts will force already struggling working-class New Yorkers to bear the costs of paying the city’s creditors.
The Mayor’s proposed $14 million cut to the library system—which covers less than twelve hours of funding in the budget for the city’s police department—will force fewer hours, reduced services, and potential building closures and layoffs, all while cuts to CUNY further starve an institution that serves hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers every year. This news comes soon after the Mayor’s plan to eliminate 50% of vacant city positions, critically undercutting the city’s ability to fulfill its legal responsibilities to its residents, including processing food stamps applications within a month. The Mayor’s budget starves New Yorkers of resources we desperately need. His cuts to public services are also likely to diminish our collective safety, undermining the institutions New Yorkers need to thrive and pushing the city’s residents deeper into poverty. Finally, the Mayor’s public statements suggest that he believes that he will have to cut services elsewhere in order to provide humane support to new immigrants arriving in NYC. We reject this xenophobic narrative, which only serves to pit people against each other. All people in our city deserve to live dignified lives, and the city has more than enough resources to ensure it can care for our collective needs.
Since taking office less than a year ago, Eric Adams has pursued a ruthless campaign to convince New Yorkers that there is no alternative to devastating cuts to city agencies and social services. His narrative is false: there is no fiscal emergency and Mayor Adams is choosing to eliminate jobs, shutter libraries, defund schools, raise rents, and let New Yorkers go hungry. We call on the Council to side with the communities that elected them and stand up against Eric Adams’ punitive austerity program.
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ABOUT THE NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA (NYC-DSA): The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 90,000 members who believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. The New York City chapter is the organization’s largest nationally, and its members include six endorsed elected officials in the state legislature, two in city council, and two in the U.S. Congress. NYC-DSA is run by its members who are working together to build a democratic socialist organization in the five boroughs.