What a day! The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed what Meg and I – and the overwhelming majority of residents of our community – have long believed: that love is love, and that every state must recognize marriage of LGBTQ Americans equally with straight ones. 

I especially liked this part of Justice Kennedy’s decision: “The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.”

The idea of America as a place where future generations can advance freedom and equality further is a powerful one (and part of why, as I wrote earlier this week, there is no better celebration of American democracy than a public school fifth grade graduation).

We are thrilled for our friends in the 30 states around the U.S. whose love and families are now equal in the eyes of the law, glad that New York is already there, and proud of our country. We have so far to go, but today we have indeed, as President Obama noted, “made our union a little more perfect.” 

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Meanwhile, as New Yorkers gathered outside a rainbow flag covered City Hall today for a “pop up” party to celebrate the Supreme Court’s ruling, inside the building the City Council voted to adopt the City’s $79 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2016 (which begins on July 1st). The budget we passed is both progressive and fiscally responsible.

Through the spring, we held hundreds of hours of hearings to look at every aspect of the NYC budget in detail – looking for areas for improvement, opportunities for savings, and places for smart investments. Throughout the process, under the leadership of Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Finance Chair Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, the Members of the Council worked diligently to make sure that every agency, every issue, and every neighborhood got the attention it needed.

Here are a few things I am especially excited about happening across the City:

• Six-day service at all our public libraries: Thanks to an additional $43 million, every public library across NYC will be open 6 days a week. This has long been one of my priorities – and it was made possible this year by an incredible “Invest in Libraries” campaign that involved many of you.
• More (and better paid) crossing guards: We’re getting 80 new crossing guards citywide, in addition to the one I recently worked to secure for the Bishop Ford pre-K center. I’m also proud to report that our crossing guards recently received a wage increase, from $10 to $11.50 per hour.  We’ve still got more to do here, but this is a good step forward toward our goals of both fair wages and Vision Zero. 
• NYC Commission on Human Rights: The Council has been working aggressively to help restore the NYC Commission on Human Rights to its rightful place as a champion of rights for all New Yorkers, with pro-active investigations into housing and employment discrimination. In the budget, we secured $3.3 million for new attorneys and staff to make this a reality.
• Youth jobs: The City Council added $34 million to the budget to create job opportunities for high-school students – so 50,000 students will have Summer Youth Employment jobs this summer, and 6,000 will get jobs in a brand-new, year-round job program.
• Ten-year capital strategy: One little-noticed feature of this year’s budget process was the “Ten-year capital strategy” put forth by the de Blasio Administration, which focuses on the infrastructure investments we need in roads and bridges, resiliency, neighborhoods experiencing housing growth, and much more. It's not perfect – for example, we must invest more in public transit – but it is an important framework.   

If you’ve read the headlines, then you know that the budget also funds an increase of 1,300 new NYPD officers – about a 5% increase. As you know, I’m a strong supporter of police reform, and have worked hard to reduce discriminatory stop-and-frisks, the overuse of low-level summonses, and inappropriate use of force. Having spent a lot of time in dialogue with Commissioner Bratton and NYPD leadership this spring, I believe they have demonstrated a real commitment and developed a thoughtful plan for “neighborhood policing” in higher-crime parts of the city, and that these additional officers are a part of that strategy. It will demand real oversight, to make sure we aren’t just “widening the net,” but genuinely improving police/community relations – and I intend to help make sure the Council provides that oversight.

While we are able to make some new investments, we are also acting prudently for the future. The budget funds a series of reserves – for capital spending, the health care trust fund, and the general reserves – at over $3 billion.

This year’s budget was developed through the Council under the new rules we adopted last year, which make sure that discretionary funding (aka “Member Items") are distributed fairly across districts, with an increase for the lowest-income neighborhoods (rather than at the whim of the Speaker, as in the past). This allows for far more thorough and honest deliberations.

I’m also proud to be funding some great capital projects right here in my district, most of which you voted on in participatory budgeting. Through PBNYC this year, we were able to fund 7 excellent projects. I’m excited as well to announce that I was able to secure enough money to make sure that an eighth project, a storytelling garden at the Park Slope Library, will also be fully funded. Here’s the full PB winner list if you haven’t seen it already:

• A/C for PS124 Cafeteria (Title 1 School) ($200,000)
• PS 146/MS 448 Innovative Gym Renovation ($225,000)
• PS 179 Auditorium Renovation ($230,000)
• Make Union Street and 9th Street Greener ($150,000)
• Four Safer Intersections on Hicks Street ($300,000)
• Technology for Local Arts Non-Profits ($90,000)
• New Drainage along Path in Prospect Park ($200,000)
• Park Slope Library Storytelling Garden ($250,000)

This year we also have the funds to move forward with two of the park projects from the Bridging Gowanus community planning process. I’ll be funding major improvements at Ennis Playground (between Second and Third avenues and 11th and 12th streets) and working to reconstruct and reopen St Mary’s Playground (on Smith Street between Nelson Street and Huntington Street) underneath the F train tracks.

There’s a lot more in the budget as well – for veterans, for our schools, for free school breakfasts in the classroom, for senior services, for health care, for a new bail fund (for non-violent misdemeanors), for legal services, and much more.

If you want all the details, you can get the City’s general budget documents on the NYC OMB website, and the particular initiatives that the City Council established or enhanced in the “Schedule C” document on the Council’s website.

If you have any budget specific questions, please contact my office at lander [at] council [dot] nyc [dot] gov or 718-499-1090. Brad