Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City has set aside $500,000 to fund community discussions on reparations and other forms of assistance for Black New Yorkers as a major budget deficit looms, internal communications show.
An internal message, dated January, detailed how more than two dozen groups would be given tens of thousands of dollars each to participate in “conversations to discuss the development of a Reparations study” and to gather “input on the early development of the citywide Truth, Healing and Reconciliation plan.”
Funding, according to the document, “allows for each community member to receive an incentive for their time” and covers the costs of providing participants with “refreshments.”
Amid the reparations spending, New York City faces an estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit throughout the next two fiscal years.
Mamdani thus far has not proposed service cuts to address the shortfall, opting instead to seek out increased taxes and dip into the city’s emergency cash reserves while increasing funding for racial equity initiatives.
Hellbound and Down 