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Council Member Justin Brannan's opening remarks on FY 2026 budget hearing for ACS and DYCD
0:00:47
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150 sec
Council Member Justin Brannan opens the sixth day of FY 2026 executive budget hearings, focusing on the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) and the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD). He provides an overview of the proposed budget for ACS, highlighting key increases and areas of concern.
- The proposed FY 2026 budget for ACS is $2.91 billion, a 3% increase from the preliminary plan.
- Key topics include new needs in the executive plan, federal and state funding, and the childcare voucher fiscal cliff.
- Brannan emphasizes the need for funding foster care, addressing childcare vouchers, and adjusting human service provider contract rates.
Justin L. Brannan
0:00:47
Thank you, sergeant.
0:00:49
Okay.
0:00:50
Good morning and welcome to day six of the FY twenty six executive budget hearings.
0:00:55
I'm council member Justin Brannan and I chair the committee on finance.
0:00:59
Today we'll begin with the administration for child services, followed by the department of youth and community development.
0:01:05
And I'm pleased to be joined by my good friend and colleague, council member Althea Stevens, who chairs the Committee on Children and Youth.
0:01:13
We have been joined this morning by council members Carr, Lee and Moya On Zoom.
0:01:20
Welcome Commissioner Danhauser and your team.
0:01:23
Thank you all for joining us today to answer our questions.
0:01:26
Just to set the table, on 05/01/2025, administration released the executive financial plan FY '20 '6 to '20 '9 with a proposed FY twenty six budget of 111, sorry, $115,100,000,000.
0:01:41
The proposed FY twenty six budget for ACS is 2,910,000,000.00 which represents 2.5% of the administration's total proposed FY twenty six budget.
0:01:52
This is an increase of $83,400,000 or 3% from the original preliminary plan back in January.
0:02:03
The increase mostly results from the increase of child care funding to meet market rate increases, funding for Promise NYC as well as the cost of living the COLA adjustment for workers at human service nonprofits and increased funding towards supporting New York's most vulnerable youth and families through childcare, foster care services and youth safety.
0:02:23
As of March 2025, ACS had five sixty vacancies relative to their FY 2025 budgeted headcount.
0:02:32
My questions today will largely focus on new needs in the executive plan, federal and state funding, as well as the looming childcare voucher fiscal cliff.
0:02:42
In its response to the preliminary budget, the council called on the administration to add funding for foster care and called for an action on child care vouchers and human service provider contract rates.
0:02:52
In light of funding halts from the state and uncertainty from Washington, we look forward to seeing how the administration plans to respond.
0:02:59
We have the resources to restore and invest in key services like child care this year while still protecting against risks and under budgeted costs and I look forward to hearing from ACS today on these topics.
0:03:12
I want to turn now to my co chair, council member Althea Stevens for her opening statement.