NEW YORK CITY — The third round of budget cut rollbacks this week proved the charm for New York City’s children.
Mayor Eric Adams said Friday that the city will fully fund the popular Summer Rising program in the coming year.
He also said funding to 170 community schools will be restored.
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But those moves — which join Hizzoner’s back-to-back restorations of cuts to the NYPD, FDNY, sanitation and parks — don’t mean the city isn’t out of budget trouble, at least according to Adams.
“We do not want to this to be taken as a signal that the city is out of the woods: we are not,” he said. “We still have a $7 billion budget gap that we’re facing.”
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Summer Rising started during the coronavirus pandemic and quickly became popular, with 111,000 children participating, officials said.
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Chancellor David Banks said the program gets students out from the classrooms’ four walls.
“It keeps our kids engaged during the summer months, aggressively tackles learning loss from the pandemic and supports our families with child care and daily meals for their kids,” he said.
But Adams said the program was funded by federal stimulus money that was ending.
The city will spend the $80 million needed for the program itself, he said.
“Those were sunsetting dollars for a permanent program,” Adams said. “We realized that we had to find a way to fund a permanent program that has become extremely popular for our parents.”
The budget restorations this week have prompted a renewed wave of criticism for Adams, who many elected officials have accused of manufacturing a budget crisis.
The mayor denied the accusation.
“If anyone wants to continue to state that this is not real, this is manufactured, I find it surprising and it sends the wrong message to Washington, D.C.,” he said.
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