Image Credit: City Planning
City continues to increase accessibility to information with online capital budget platform. On October 7, 2019, the Department of City Planning announced the launch of the City’s first digital version of the Ten-Year Capital Strategy. Produced with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, the new platform highlights the goals, policies, constraints, assumptions and criteria used to assess the City’s capital needs. The platform also lays out anticipated sources of funding. This interactive version of the plan is intended to make the information more accessible to community boards, policy makers, and the public at large. It utilizes interactive project spotlights, illustrative graphs, maps and pictures to achieve this goal. To view the online platform, click here.
The city plans to allocate $116.9 billion dollars over the next ten years, starting in 2020. The four distinct features of the online platform are as follows:
- Overview of Spending— This section shows the allocation of capital resources across agencies, programs and lifestyle categories.
- Guiding Principles— This section provides City agencies a long-term framework for developing capital project portfolios and underlying planning processes.
- Investment Priorities—This section is designed to help City agencies make capital investments that reflect city wide policy and strategic goals.
- Financing—This section projects the City’s plan for long-term borrowing through the use of different bonds.
The Ten-Year Capital Strategy online resource is consistent with the City’s concerted effort to increase transparency and public engagement. Some of the recently created public engagement tools include the Community Board Budget Request tool and the After-Hours Construction Map tool. Read Cityland’s prior coverage of the Community Board Budget Request tool, and DOB’s After-Hours Construction Map tool in the links embedded.
City Planning Director Marisa Lago said “We’re committed to giving New Yorkers the tools that they need to understand, access and get involved in shaping the future of our city. I encourage every New Yorker to explore this easy-to-use fiscal guide and get to know the city you love- at the dollar level.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson commented “Access to capital planning information is critical for New Yorkers to be engaged in the process, and this new tool will allow them to have just that. New Yorkers should get involved in the future look of New York City.”
To download the entire report, click here.
By: Jason Rogovich (Jason Rogovich is the CityLaw Fellow and New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2019)