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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sami Abu Shumays, Deputy Director of Flushing Town Hall
4:59:55
·
115 sec
Sami Abu Shumays, Deputy Director of Flushing Town Hall, expresses gratitude for the baseline increase but highlights ongoing budget challenges. Despite the increase, Flushing Town Hall still faces a significant cut that could lead to staff layoffs.
- Flushing Town Hall's new baseline budget of $516,000 represents a $306,000 cut from their fiscal 2025 allocation.
- The cut amounts to 37% of their DCLA operating budget and 8% of their total annual budget.
- Abu Shumays urges for an additional $30 million baseline increase and emphasizes the need for sustainable support for organizations serving diverse and lower-income communities.
Sami Abu Shumays
4:59:55
My name is Sammy Bouchemayes, deputy director at Flushing Town Hall, one of the small SIGs.
5:00:01
Let me start by saying that we're enormously grateful to the administration for the baseline increase and to the council for its steadfast advocacy for that.
5:00:11
However, the new baseline for Flushing Town Hall only brings our budget figure up to 516,000, which still represents a cut of 306,000 from our fiscal twenty five allocation of 822,000.
5:00:25
This still represents a 37% cut to our operating budget from DCLA, and a cut of 8% to our total annual budget.
5:00:33
If this cut is sustained in the adopted '26 budget, it could necessitate us having to lay off five to six of our full time employees, which represents just under a third of our staff.
5:00:44
So while you may hear folks saying that the budget dance has ended, it has not ended for us.
5:00:50
I don't really have much to add that hasn't been said by many amazing colleagues here in the cultural sector.
5:00:55
I'll just say this, please look closely at the numbers and make sure that everyone is held harmless from the CDF organizations who desperately need a new funding model and to the CIG organizations.
5:01:06
Please baseline the additional 30,000,000 for fiscal twenty six and make sure that organizations like ours who serve diverse and lower income communities are truly supported and made sustainable.
5:01:18
On the back of my testimony, I copied page seventeen eighty from the supporting schedules.
5:01:22
You can see that cut.
5:01:25
And you asked a question earlier about how the money was distributed to the Of the 21,000,000 to 34 Sigs, Flushingtown Hall got a hundred and 41,000, bringing our baseline from 375,000 to 516,000.
5:01:44
We are still largely suffering from unbaseline funding.
5:01:49
Thank you.