The City budget is a statement of principles. Our leaders are bound to Environmental Justice principles through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and the EJNYC Plan, yet funding to execute on these commitments has fallen through time and time again. Tell Mayor Mamdani and the City Council how to align fiscal action with their stated principles.

WE ACT’s Fiscal Year 27 Budget Platform

• Green Healthy Schools: Create over 320K high-quality green jobs that improve educational environments by reducing air pollution, heat illness risk, and reliance on fossil fuels. This would transform our schools over five years, starting with a $2.2B allocation this year.

• Cooling Centers: Allocate $1.2 million in the City operating budget to New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) to fund overtime staffing in the most heat vulnerable neighborhoods.
  

• Parks: New York City’s parks system is chronically underfunded, despite generating billions in public benefits. Communities of color feel this discrepancy most, having access to 33% less park land and degraded amenities. 1% of the City’s budget is the bare minimum for the Parks department to actualize safe, clean, green parks accessible to all New Yorkers.

• Bureau for Coastal Resilience: The Bureau is responsible for protecting New York City’s 520-mile coastline amid increasing climate risks. Fully funding the Bureau at $10M is needed for permanent staffing, strategic planning, and meaningful community engagement.
  

• EJNYC Plan: In order for the plan to align with environmental justice principles, there must be a robust community engagement process that allows residents to speak for themselves. We recommend a budget allocation of at least $1M to the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) to ensure community members have many opportunities to offer solutions that will best serve their neighborhoods.

• Composting: Community composting is a critical way to eliminate food sources for pests, support local food production, improve soil quality throughout the urban forest, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The City Council must maintain Fiscal Year 26 funding for community composting programs across New York City

• Heat Pumps for All: Allocate $10 million to Department of Housing Preservation and Development to establish and implement a subsidy program starting in 2027 that would bridge access to heat pumps for 1-2 family homeowners while promoting high quality, union jobs.

Sign here to tell your City Councilmember and Mayor Mamdani that our communities cannot afford to delay funding on climate action any further. Local leadership must not backtrack on our climate goals while the federal administration is actively hostile to a just future that prioritizes the needs of people and the planet over domination and greed. It’s time for NYC to demonstrate to the rest of the country we don’t have to compromise on our future, even in times of scarcity.