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Mayor Eric Adams’ nearly $112 billion executive budget, released Wednesday, includes more than $5 billion for health care initiatives, a figure that has grown by $172 million since his January preliminary budget.
The revised plan avoids new spending cuts for city agencies and paints a rosier picture of the city’s future thanks to pared-down spending on migrants and an improving economy, Adams said Wednesday.
Specific funding for mental health programming was unclear in his preliminary budget, but it saw a significant bump in the revised one. Adams dedicated $74 million toward supporting nearly 500 psychologists and social workers who provide care in schools or FY25 and beyond, and $9 million to provide more services in precincts that see high levels of gun violence. He also restored cuts to school-based mental health programs.
The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also got an $89 million increase over the preliminary budget, to $2.2 billion. About $55 million is set to go toward a new public health laboratory, according to a summary of the executive budget. The budget for New York City Health + Hospitals has held steady at just over $3 billion.
Despite these bumps, members of the City Council are pushing for more.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams criticized the mayor Wednesday for not including an additional $225 million for mental health initiatives which the council pushed for in its preliminary budget response earlier this month.
“We are disappointed that critical support for key mental health services, programs to reduce recidivism, and libraries that our city desperately needs are not included in the Executive Budget,” Adams and Council finance chair Justin Brannan said in a joint statement. They added that “significant work” remains ahead to reach a conclusion that advances New Yorkers’ health and safety.
Councilwoman Lynn Schulman of Queens, who chairs the health committee, told Crain’s she is pushing the administration for more funding for programs that combat chronic disease. According to the health department, chronic and diet-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes continue to be the leading cause of death across all racial and ethnic groups of New Yorkers.
To that end, Schulman is working to get funding that can be used to collect data for the city’s HealthyNYC initiative, she said. The program aims to address factors that contribute to premature deaths, including chronic disease, in an effort to raise New Yorkers’ average life expectancy to exceed 83 by 2030.
Schulman is also advocating for more money for programs that will make breast cancer screenings more accessible to New Yorkers and pushing for increased funding to help birthing people access in-home doula support for free.
Councilwoman Mercedes Narcisse of Brooklyn, a registered nurse who chairs the council’s committee on hospitals, said she’s pushing for more funding for education, genetic screening and outreach for sickle cell disease, which disproportionately impact Black New Yorkers. She said funding will become more crucial as more migrants arrive in the city from West Africa and parts of the Caribbean.
Additionally, Narcisse said, she is fighting for more funding in the budget for New York City Health + Hospitals residents, who have repeatedly called on the mayor for new contracts with better pay. She emphasized that bolstering the public health workforce will be crucial in lowering instances of chronic disease among vulnerable New Yorkers and addressing disparities.
The Adams administration and the City Council must agree on a final budget by July.
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Jacqueline Neber , 2024-04-25 11:33:07
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