NEW: "Back to School" Budget Update

New York By The Numbers New York by the Numbers Monthly Economic and Fiscal Outlook Photo Credit: RAW-films/Shutterstock [READ MORE]( No. 81 - September 12th, 2023 A Message from the Comptroller Dear New Yorkers, As students return to school, it’s time to check the economic and fiscal numbers from this summer. The national economy showed renewed signs of strength, led by brisk consumer spending. The labor market remains strong, and inflation has continued to moderate. New York City’s economy is giving mixed but mostly positive signals, with job levels, hotel occupancy, and Broadway theaters almost fully back to pre-pandemic levels. Lots more details below. For our Spotlight, we focus on school budgets. Our analysis finds that DOE kept its promise to maintain school budgets at least at the same level as last fall, and a new formula provides a boost for schools with the highest concentration of high-needs students. But challenges loom as pandemic aid expires, and a new round of cuts is on the horizon. You can also download a dataset our team built to look up where your school fits in. This month we’re introducing a new web resource, [Accounting for Asylum Seeker Services]( to provide greater transparency into the City’s response to the arrival of thousands of people seeking asylum, including the shelter census, budget information, and a database of emergency contracts. Our office keeps a close eye on those emergency contracts, which bring greater risk of waste and fraud as agencies scramble to procure services with less time and competition. We’ve approved 303 emergency contracts (out of over 30,000 total contracts overall) so far this term, including 69 for asylum seeker services. But last week, we [declined to approve]( a $432 million contract with DocGo, citing numerous concerns with the procurement process and the company’s conduct, which is the subject of multiple investigations. As we were going to press, Mayor Adams declared that the migrant crisis “would destroy New York City” and then announced a new round of budget cuts, instructing agencies to cut their budgets by a steep 15% by next spring. As I’ve said many times, we do need a real long-term savings plan, and more help from Washington and Albany. But while our office will carefully review the proposed cuts, one thing is immediately clear: scapegoating asylum seekers will not improve education, public safety, housing affordability, of quality of life for New Yorkers. Feel free to share this “back to school” issue with your kids. You never know who will grow up to be a Comptroller someday (here's my 1st grade student picture!) [Brad Lander's 1st Grade student picture] Sincerely, Brad Lander Table of Contents - [The U.S. Economy]( - [New York City Economy]( - [New York City Real Estate]( - [Tourism]( - [Accounting for Asylum Seeker Services]( - [Worker Cooperatives]( - [City Finances]( [View the Full September Economic Newsletter]( Accounting for Asylum Seeker Services New York City has welcomed over 100,000 people seeking asylum since the spring of 2022. The City of New York is currently sheltering more than 59,000 people, the majority of whom are families with children, and is projected to spend $4 billion dollars this year to provide shelter and services. Last month, the Comptroller’s Office created a new online hub to bring greater transparency to the public, press, and City agencies regarding the City’s emergency response to the arrival of thousands of people each week. For information about the asylum seeker population, emergency contracts that the City has entered into to provide shelter and services, the fiscal impacts of these efforts, and the Comptroller’s Office’s recommendations for controlling costs, [check out the new resource hub](. [View the Accounting for Asylum Seeker Services Page]( Spotlight: 2023-2024 School Budget Update As children and teachers returned to their classrooms this month, their principals were busy working to determine how to meet the needs and challenges of their school within the parameters of the funding allocations provided by the NYC Department of Education (DOE). At this time last year, many schools across NYC were facing budget cuts. Our [May]( described what led to the 2022-2023 funding cuts and what transpired afterwards to partially restore them. This Month’s Spotlight takes a deeper look at these changes, reviewing some of the particulars of the school budget formula that are new this year, and what happened to school budget allocations across the city compared to last year. [View the Spotlight]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Link]( [Website]( Copyright © 2023 New York City Comptroller's Office, All rights reserved. Communicated with the Comptroller's office. Our mailing address is: New York City Comptroller's Office 1 Centre StreetNew York, NY 10007 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.