New York, N.Y. (June 14, 2019)— Citizens Union, New York’s preeminent nonpartisan good government group, issues the following statement from executive director Betsy Gotbaum, applauding the Mayor de Blasio and City Council for funding census outreach in the city budget:
“Citizens Union applauds the Mayor and the City Council for ensuring that we have the funds necessary for a fair and accurate census count in New York City. The census is critically important for the future of our city and will determine—for the next 10 years—federal funding for such programs as food assistance to needy families, early childhood education for low-income children and maintenance for our bridges and roads, as well as the number of congressional seats and electoral college votes the state has.
“This funding underscores that the City understands what we’re up against. The Trump administration is going out of its way to ensure communities with large immigrant populations, like New York, are undercounted to strip them of political power and financial resources. Their motives have been exposed as brazenly political and racist.
This money will ensure that trusted community-based organizations in hard to count communities have the resources they need to ensure all New Yorkers participate in the 2020 census. We thank Mayor Bill de Blasio, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Council Members Carlos Menchaca and Carlina Rivera for making census funding a priority in this year’s budget.”
About Citizens Union
Citizens Union (CU) is committed to reforming New York City and State government to foster accountability, accessibility, transparency, honesty, and the highest ethical standards. For the past 120 years, we at Citizens Union have devoted ourselves to holding our local governments accountable to do better in all of these areas, and we remain committed to enfranchising all New Yorkers. The many initiatives that we are currently advancing include ethics reform, increased voter participation and civic engagement, greater policy accountability, and a truly accurate 2020 census. In all of these efforts, we have been—and will remain—nonpartisan. Learn more at www.citizensunion.org.