After weeks of public hearings, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Commission on Government Efficiency — also known as COGE — has come up with five potential ballot proposals.
What You Need To Know
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s charter commission — the Commission on Government Efficiency or COGE — has published five ballot questions for the November ballot
The questions range from speeding up the construction of bike and bus lanes to establishing a savings target for the city’s rainy day fund
The charter’s work comes as Mayor Eric Adams’ so-called “zombie commission” is in court over its push to get open primaries on the ballot
“Really, the commission was listening. The commission was listening for ways to make government work better for New Yorkers,” Ann Cheng, the executive director of COGE, said.
The five questions range from cutting down the approval process for outdoor dining to speeding up city contracting to fast-tracking bus and bike lanes to establishing a process for putting money into the city’s rainy day fund.
Cheng told NY1 that the questions focused on making government faster and easier to navigate.
“The focus areas that we focused on were really places where we said, ‘We can take the charter. We can make changes to this old document that’s still governing how we’re doing business and really bring it into the 21st century,'” she said.
Under question number three, the city’s Department of Transportation would be able to start work on street projects at the same time other agencies and the public are notified. A major change from the current system that requires previous consultation.
“You can’t not do public engagement. That’s not something we or the Department of Transportation would ever want to do. But we are saying that where there is an immediate need, that public engagement can happen in parallel to the start of work,” Cheng said.
The proposal, if passed, could speed up the work on bus and bike lanes by 33%.
Under question number five, the city would establish a process for keeping the city’s reserves at 12% of the tax revenue. The method for depositing the funds would need to be developed by May of next year.
“Efficiency is not about doing less, it’s not about cutting things, it’s not about slashing jobs. It’s about doing more, and if you’re gonna do more, you have to plan for the future. We can’t just be thinking about the next day and expect to really just deliver more for New Yorkers in a meaningful way,” Cheng said.
“It’s not like you’ll never see that money again, it’s like there’s certain conditions under which you have to contribute and other conditions under which you may need to withdraw,” she continued.
The city would be able to withdraw from the fund in the event the mayor certifies that there is an “immediate fiscal need that warrants a withdrawal above 50%,” Cheng said.
In the background of COGE’s work is former Mayor Eric Adams’ so-called “zombie commission” that is tied up in legal fights over its own push to get open primaries on the ballot. The next court hearing in that commission’s fight is Wednesday.
COGE will hold a final meeting on Thursday to finalize the questions that will appear on the November ballot.