FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 24, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Adams unveils $98 billion preliminary 2023 fi scal budget
BY ETHAN STARK MILLER
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his $98
billion preliminary budget for fiscal
year 2023, which he said will focus on
promoting public safety and speeding
up the city’s economic recovery from
COVID-19.
“New York has always been a city of
the future,” Adams said. “And today,
we are here to plan for that future. It
means building a city where safety and
justice go hand-in-hand. A city where
our children can play, read and thrive.
Where education embraces the whole
child and supports our families. A city
where we embrace the progress being
made in new forms of energy, transit
and commerce. A city of abundance of
jobs, housing and health care for all.
This is the city New Yorkers want and
deserve.”
But Adams said his vision for a
better city can only be realized if
his administration decreases excess
spending, which is something it has
Ardila announces campaign to replace Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Maspeth native and community
activist Juan
Ardila recently launched
his campaign to replace
Assemblywoman Cathy
Nolan, a week after she decided
to not seek re-election following
a 38-year career representing
western Queens in
Albany.
The progressive Democrat
mounted an unsuccessful
challenge against Councilman
Robert Holden last year,
and he became the first to
announce his run for the 37th
Assembly District since Nolan
announced her impending
retirement.
The redrawn 37th District
includes much of western
Ridgewood, the western corner
of Maspeth, and parts of
Woodside, Sunnyside and the
Hunters Point section of Long
Island City.
“I’m running for state
Assembly because Queens
residents deserve affordable
housing, improved public
transit and a plan to combat
climate change,” Ardila
said. “Growing up in an
immigrant family, I have
experienced how important
it is to have representation
that understands
how government
can impact
our lives. In
Albany, I will
be a champion
for our
seniors,
our workers
and our
tenants. I
am excited
to fight
for a better
future
for all New
Yorkers.”
Ardila offers
an alternative
to the moderate
Nolan,
who was a
staunch supporter of the
Amazon proposal that would
have built an HQ2
campus in Long
Island City, a
project that the
e-commerce
giant scuttled
after opposition
from progressive
western
Queens elected officials.
“I thank Cathy Nolan for
her decades of service to our
community. I believe it is time
for a change,” Ardila told QNS
Thursday. “I am running to
make sure that the community’s
needs are at the center
of all decision-making. I
opposed the Amazon development
plan because there was
no legitimate reason for taxpayers
to subsidize a trilliondollar
corporation. The reality
is that Amazon is still hiring
and expanding in NYC, even
without tax breaks, because
we have the greatest
workers here.”
Ardila is a lifelong Queens
resident and first-generation
American, the son of
a Colombian father and
Honduran-Cuban mother. He
said he understands the hardships
of working-class families
and he’s running to improve
the public schools, the criminal
justice system and
housing policies.
The state Assembly candidate
attended St. Adalbert
Catholic Academy in
Elmhurst for elementary
and middle school, then
Archbishop Molloy High
School in Briarwood and
later earned his B.A. in political
science from Fordham
University. He then got his
master’s degree in public
administration with a concentration
in public policy analysis
from New York University.
Ardila grew up in a working
class, immigrant household.
When he was 17, he
said, he nearly lost his mother
to deportation after she
was denied her residency. Just
a few years later, some of his
family members in Honduras
faced persecution from gang
violence.
During his campaign
against Holden, Ardila said
he regretted racist and antigay
language he used in social
media posts as a teenager,
and following his apology he
went on to gain the endorsements
of several high-profile
city and state leaders like
state Senator Jessica Ramos
and Assemblywoman Catalina
Cruz.
already been working on. This
is something Adams’ administration
took action on after his
first 10 days in office, he said,
by ordering all city agencies to
trim down 3% of their fiscal
year 2022 and 2023 budgets.
As a result, Adams said, the city
has cut over $2 billion in spending
and will head into the
new budget season with
a reserve of over
$6 billion.
“ My
administration
is laser
focused on
fi scal discipline,”
Adams
said.
“We’re
not spending our money. We’re spending
your money. And we will make decisions
that invest in our city and benefi t all New
Yorkers. We will be radically practical.
Success will be measured by how much
we accomplish, not how much we spend.”
Adams credited the cost cutting
to his Chief Effi ciency
Offi cer Melanie LaRocca,
who’s leading the eff ort to
cut excess spending in
the city bureaucracy. Her
work includes reducing
the number of city agencies
by consolidating those
with similar focuses. For
instance, Adams said
he recently signed
an executive
order to combine
all the
city agencies
dealing with
technology
into the newly
created Offi ce
of Technology
and
Innovation.
When it comes to actually spending
the money in this year’s preliminary budget,
Adams said public safety is one of his
top priorities. In particular, that means
reducing crime overall and battling what
he described as an “epidemic” of gun violence.
“Th e NYPD is our fi rst line of defense
against gun violence,” Adams said. “We
will make new eff orts to strengthen and
reinforce it, while continuing our mission
to involve the community. We have
already started putting more offi cers on
patrol and enhancing our existing public
safety units with new neighborhood
safety teams, which will focus on gun violence.”
Additionally, Adams’ administration
will invest in longer-term solutions
for reducing gun violence like directing
funds to improve education, services for
unhoused people, and mental health programs.
Another one of Adams’ budget priorities,
he said, is bolstering the city’s economic
recovery from the pandemic by
investing more money in supporting
working-class families.
“Th is wise management of our resources
is allowing us to make historic investments
in equity and justice and in safety,”
Adams said. “We’re putting money in the
pockets of working people.”
Mayor Eric Adams
Photo courtesy of Ardila campaign
Maspeth community activist Juan Ardila becomes fi rst
to launch campaign to replace Assemblywoman Cathy
Nolan after she announced she would retire at the end
of the year.
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