NYS and NYC Budget Timelines, with key opportunities for advocacy

JULY – DECEMBER

Critical time to invite elected officials to your programming. Let them know what you are doing. Get to know their staff as well! Include them in invites to programs and events. Engage and let them get to know you—without it being part of a policy or budget ask. In advocacy, as in life, relationships are everything. 

NY State Budget process/advocacy timeline

NOV-DEC

The NYS Legislature’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Caucus often invites input from the public in the creation of their “People’s Budget”. Follow the Caucus and sign up for their emails. Last year their first draft, released in January, included a ‘Cultural Equity Fund” for BIPOC cultural orgs. And the final version included a “Cultural Sustainability Fund.” While these budgets have no binding power, they are a good place to get ideas and asks on the agenda. 

JAN

This is the time to get in touch with your NYS Senators and Assembly members to get meetings on their calendar. Every NYS legislator lists their email on the government web site. Keep a list of any emails of any office members that respond. Heads of Delegations from the various boroughs are particularly important. And of course the chairs and members of the Assembly and Senate Cultural Affairs Committees. Here is a list of committees in the NYS Senate and the committees in the NYS Assembly. 

FEB-MAR

Meet with your NYS legislators! In person in Albany or when they are in the city is best. But zoom meetings are sometimes easier to schedule. It is also powerful to pull together several cultural groups or workers, and bonus if you can bring someone to the meeting who benefits from your programs, ie, a parent of a child who takes part in your activities. 

NY4CA sets up a series of meetings with legislators, and we love to include NY4CA members from the legislators’ districts. If you’d like to be part of meetings with your representatives, let us know!

MAR

NYS Assembly and Senate put out preliminary budgets, and set about meeting with each other to create the “One House” budget. This is a critical time to contact legislators and the Governor as they reconcile the One House with the Governor’s budget. See what made it into the One House and make sure that culture is not decreased one cent in the final negotiations. 

APR

Final budget is passed. 

NYC budget process/advocacy timeline

JAN-FEB: Mayor’s Preliminary Budget released

This is the time to get in touch with your own Council Members, and to get on the radar of the Cutlural Affairs Chair and Committee, as well as the leadership of the Finance Committee. They will all be key in the budget battle. Ask for meetings, let them know about your work and how important it is to the city and to their constituents, ask them for advice on who to speak to and how to support their efforts on behalf of culture. Council emails are listed on the NY4CA Data and Resources page. Find out who your Council Member is here. 

During this time, NY4CA also discusses the overarching “ask” for support for culture in the budget. Attend the weekly NY4CA Advocacy call Thursdays from 3-4PM to help create this document and make your voice heard. Budget advocacy is most effective if the entire sector can unite in a single ‘ask’ for support. To sign up for invites to the calls, email Lucy@NY4CA.org 

MAR: City Council Hearings on the Preliminary Budget

Keep an eye on the Council’s calendar here. Consider testifying at the Cultural Affairs Committee hearings as well as those held by Committees affected by your work (Education, Economic Development, Aging, Mental Health, etc). Very effective if you can express your support for the sector-wide ‘ask’ described above. You can sign up to testify virtually or in person, most are still happening on zoom or both live and on zoom. Check out this info sheet on testifying at Council hearings. 

At the end of March, the Council will release their ‘response’ to the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget. In general, this will be the high water mark of what we can hope for in terms of support for culture in the budget. 

APR-MAY

Ask your Council Member who has been appointed to the Budget Negotiating Team (BNT). These Council Members will be key to the final budget. The Speaker of the City Council is also very powerful in this process. Try to meet with them and/or email the BNT and the Speaker. Again referring to the sector-wide ask will make this most effective.  

MAY

There will be a final round of budget hearings at the City Council. NY4CA and other cultural organizations and coalitions hold a rally on the steps of City Hall during this time. The month ends with a marathon Finance Committee hearing. Very important for lots of culture workers and organizations to be among the many groups testifying. 

JUNE

NYC’s budget is released in June. The deadline is the end of the month, but it is often released earlier. 

OCT-DEC

The Mayor releases a ‘plan’ to modify the budget passed in June in light of the city’s current financial outlook. This is when Program for Eliminating the Gap (PEG) cuts are often proposed. It is critical to make our voices heard at this time so that NO cuts to culture make it across the finish line in December. Letters to the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs are needed. Give them data and stories of what cuts will do to your organization and the city and ask them to protect the agency’s funding.