empaneled by Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat New Yorkers will have the chance to vote on is to make government work faster,” he continued.<\/p>\n
The first question focuses on making it easier for businesses to use curb space for outdoor dining. The second question speeds up the contracting process, the third question looks to fast-track street safety projects like bike and bus lanes, the fourth question centralizes the construction permitting process, and the last question sets a target for the city\u2019s rainy-day fund in its budget.<\/p>\n
Good-government groups like Citizens Union support the proposals, arguing they eliminate bureaucratic hurdles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese reforms are important. They are measured. They’re practical and real. They are designed to simply cut red tape,\u201d Grace Rauh, the executive director of Citizens Union, said.\u00a0\u201cThese are all reforms that are designed to make New York City government work better, and ultimately be more responsive to the needs of New Yorkers.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Advocates for street safety, like the group Transportation Alternatives, say passing question number three is about saving lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, more than 200 New Yorkers are killed in preventable traffic crashes. This is a public health crisis, but it is taking way too long to solve. Why is that? Because of overly bureaucratic processes that keep our streets dangerous,\u201d said Charlie Baker, of Transportation Alternatives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But not everyone is supportive of the proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ken Brown is a member of Community Board 5 in the Bronx, and said drivers worry that the changes to street safety would have unintended consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under question 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. It would be a major change from the current system that requires previous consultation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s done with these good intentions to get people out of cars, things like that, but one of the consequences is that people who are residents there that do have cars are pushed to the side, and they feel like their concerns are not as weighted,\u201d Brown said to NY1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, independent fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission has taken issue with the 12% savings target the final question looks to establish, saying it doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we could adopt a policy to require deposits when revenues are strong, we could adopt a policy to limit withdrawals to a recession or severe emergency and you define what that is and we should cap it at 16%,\u201d Andrew Rein, the president of Citizens Budget Commission, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Voters will need to flip over their ballot to vote on the questions. Each one will need a simple majority to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"November\u2019s ballot will have more than just political races on it. The ballot will include five key questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,25,6348,9,24,11,10,12,108,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-379070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-kelly-mena","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}