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Q&A
Council Member Brewer questions IBO on budget analysis and potential impacts
5:39:50
·
4 min
Council Member Gale A. Brewer engages in a Q&A session with representatives from the Independent Budget Office (IBO), focusing on various aspects of New York City's budget and potential impacts of state and federal decisions. The discussion covers topics such as tax collection, federal budget cuts, education funding, childcare vouchers, and housing vouchers.
- Brewer inquires about updates on uncollectible taxes and parking fines.
- The conversation touches on the timing of city decisions regarding potential federal budget cuts.
- Education funding is discussed, including concerns about immigrant students and class size requirements.
- Childcare and housing vouchers are identified as critical areas of concern in the budget.
Gale A. Brewer
5:39:50
Thank you.
5:39:52
I know I always ask the same question, but I know you did an analysis a while ago of those taxes and parking fines and so on that could not be collected.
5:40:01
I just didn't know there was any update.
5:40:03
I've asked others about it, and it's I think everybody's trying.
5:40:06
And the finance has got, I think nine collection agencies and staff trying.
5:40:12
But I just didn't know if you've done any updated on that topic.
Louisa Chafee
5:40:16
We have not yet done an updated analysis.
5:40:18
Okay.
Gale A. Brewer
5:40:19
And the other question I have is with the when you, you did such a great analysis here of the state and federal, the exact numbers as to what is or is not there.
5:40:31
I know this is a hard question, but how do you think, or when do you think when would it be appropriate for the city to make some decisions about this?
5:40:40
Obviously, now and the June, I assume you might say.
5:40:44
But how are we gonna how do you look at this federal cut?
Louisa Chafee
5:40:47
So we suggest to add money to the reserves in advance of what we believe to be severe federal cuts.
5:40:55
But we also recognize that the new acronym, TACO, may apply on some level and that there may be far less, but then better to have reserves and be able to deploy them in future years in other ways.
5:41:10
If this process goes through as anticipated, as outlined in the testimony, we would expect the state shortly after the Senate finishes to have to go into special session and that the cities quite quickly after that would then also need to adjust its anticipated expenditures so that probably by November decisions will have been made.
Gale A. Brewer
5:41:36
And that's when the feds will know more too that they're what we're doing with them.
5:41:40
In terms of education, is there anything that you could add because of your expertise there in terms of education, either from what the state did or didn't give us or from, you know, what could happen in in Washington?
5:41:53
We're obviously concerned about the 2,000,000,000.
5:41:55
We're concerned, in my situation, about the migrants.
5:41:59
I would love them to stay in the Department of Education.
5:42:02
I feel so strongly about that.
5:42:04
I just was wondering if there's anything you want to add about education.
Sarita Subramanian
5:42:07
Yeah.
5:42:08
So I would agree with you on particularly funds for immigrant students.
5:42:14
So Title III is something that we're paying close attention to.
5:42:19
In terms of the additional costs we project for education, I think class size remains to be the one cost that we anticipate especially in twenty seven and out years.
5:42:34
I know the department has added some funds and we're working to update our estimate of that as well.
5:42:41
But I think actually what's unique about our analysis this time is that you know the challenges in ACS with the childcare vouchers are trumping a lot of the additional education costs that we're estimating.
5:42:56
So I'd say child care vouchers is a really critical area.
5:42:59
Right.
Gale A. Brewer
5:43:00
And and obviously the state put in money.
5:43:01
It's not clear even though we heard earlier that it's there.
5:43:05
It's not completely clear what the city's putting in.
Jacques Jiha
5:43:08
Mhmm.
Gale A. Brewer
5:43:09
In terms of, vouchers for the, housing Yep.
5:43:14
That came up in the sense that we have x dollars.
5:43:19
I think that the DSS commissioner indicated that she, you know, feels we'll save $11,000,000, but there's a concern that people, have to pay more for their voucher.
5:43:31
And so they may end up going back to shelter.
5:43:33
That's what the nonprofits think.
5:43:36
Is that something that you've looked at in terms of what the future could be for those with housing vouchers?
Sarita Subramanian
5:43:41
We did not factor that into our estimate.
5:43:46
So, but that is something that would certainly make an impact in terms of the number of vouchers that are issued.
Gale A. Brewer
5:43:55
Right, okay thank you.