The Grammy winning artist called out the leaders for making cuts to essential departments such as education and sanitation on her live stream that was reposted on social media.
‘120 million budget cut on schools, libraries, police department and sanitation, b***h New York is already f*****g super dirty,’ Cardi B said.
‘How is there 100 million dollar budget cut in New York City for f*****g schools, library, police safety and sanitation, yet Joe Biden is talking about “yeah, we can fund two wars.”‘
On Thursday, the mayor announced a $110.5 billion budget, claiming cuts across all departments were necessary after the city spent $1.45 billion in fiscal 2023 on the migrant crisis.
Cardi B speaks about the $120 million budget cuts in New York City pic.twitter.com/ezPjWLpqSq
— louboucardi✰ (@louboucardi) November 19, 2023
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Bronx native and Grammy artist Cardi B called out Mayor Eric Adams and President Joe Biden for New York City’s latest budget cuts
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Adams announced budget cuts across all departments due to the expensive migrant crisis
The chart-topping rapper often gives back to her hometown. In 2022, Cardi B partner with the mayor’s office to help pay for the funerals of the 17 victims of the Bronx apartment fire.
‘What’s going to happen to my nieces, what’s going to happen to my nephews, what’s going to happen to my cousins, my aunts, my friends that’s living in the hood,’ said the Bodak Yellow hit rapper. ‘I’m from the Bronx, I don’t want to see my s**t affected.’
‘Everybody be like “New York is dirty,” and it is dirty, and we’re going to get even dirtier with the f*****g budget cut.’
The budget cuts would cause NYPD officers to be cut by a fifth, or 13.5 percent, by postponing the next five academy classes, bringing officers below 30,000 – down from 36,000.
Education would also take a $1 billion hit over two years and it would cause a delay in the rollout of composting in the Bronx and Staten Island, causing reduced trash pick-ups as well as cuts to the city’s pre-K programs.
The New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library also would need to eliminate Sunday service due to the budget cut.
‘Without sufficient funding, we cannot sustain our current levels of service, and any further cuts to the Libraries’ budgets will, unfortunately, result in deeper service impacts,’ the libraries said in a statement.
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Adams ordered city agencies – including the NYPD, fire department and Department of Education – to slash budgets by 15 percent this fiscal year
The cuts would also decrease funding education and library services
The cuts would also decrease funding for two children’s programs: summer school and universal prekindergarten.
Cardi B said, ‘If your kid can’t f*****g buy books at the book fairs and s**t, your kid can barely even f*****g read at a local library, they’re going to close that s**t.’
‘Crimes are gonna go through the roof because there is a police safety budget cut and on top of that there’s a sanitation f*****g budget cut so that means we’re gonna be drowning in rats.’
Adams cited the expensive costs of housing the Big Apple’s more than 120,000 migrants have arrived the last 18 months.
The mayor signed $5 million in nearly 200 contracts for migrant services since last year, when he declared a state of emergency. The contracts show $140 million is being spent on security, $45 million on asylum applications and $7 million is being spent on laundry.
Adams has said the crisis will cost New York City $12 billion over three years.
‘But for months, you’ve heard me talk about the fiscal challenges the city is facing as the cost of asylum seeker humanitarian crisis have skyrocketed – placing great strain on our budget,’ the mayor said when announcing the budget cuts.
‘At the same time, Covid-19 stimulus funding is sunsetting – we have been clear that without significant, timely action from our state and federal partners, we will be forced to make some tough choices.’
Cardi B said, ‘Mayor Eric said it, there’s a budget cut going on in New York and little by little it’s going to go in y’alls states.’
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Migrants wait outside of the Roosevelt Hotel to be processed on August2. More than 118,000 have flooded New York City, a ‘sanctuary city,’ since the spring of 2022
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Asylum seekers line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel in September. The city is estimating it will spend $12 billion on the migrant crisis over three years
Big Apple takes in nearly 15,000 asylum seekers
‘The mayor says $120 million budget cut, and trust me, if they’re making a big a** budget cut in New York City, watch it’s going to start going to your state.’
‘We can’t fund these wars, we can barely f*****g fund this country,’ she added.
Chair of the City Council’s progressive caucus Lincoln Restler echoed Cardi B’s thoughts.
‘Mayor Adams’s unnecessary, dangerous and draconian budget cuts will only worsen New York’s affordability crisis and delay our city’s economic recovery by cutting funding for the schools, child care, food assistance and more that help New Yorkers live and raise families in this city,’ he said to the New York Times.
The city’s largest police union also slammed the budget cuts, warning they will make the streets less safe by bringing the number of officers down to levels last seen in the 1980s and 1990s.
The number of cops patrolling the streets expected to drop from 33,541 to about 29,000, the lowest staffing numbers since the 1990s.
‘Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s,’ Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said.
‘We cannot go back there. We need every level of government to work together to find a way to support police officers and protect New York City’s 30 years of public safety progress.’
