Bill De Blasio is quick to cry that his city is poor and that it’s all Trump’s fault. Before he goes complaining about a lack of funds to run New York City, he may want to check with his wife, first.
Although De Blasio wants to claim that the city is going through a financial crisis at the moment, his wife has 14 staffers that are being paid out of a $2 million budget. So, while the city doesn’t have enough money to make trash pickups on a regular basis, the mental health initiative that his wife is running have employees that can cash quite a generous paycheck every month
ThriveNYC. It’s the organization that is supposed to provide mental health to the people of New York City. It’s headed up by Chirlane Irene McCray, who happens to be the wife of Mayor De Blasio. Hmmmm….
So, McCray is sitting in New York City with a core staff of eight, including a videographer who has a generous salary of $70,000. This videographer is listed as an employee of the Department of Health. Apparently, it’s justifiable to pay this kind of money – they did, after all, film the first lady baking ginger snaps during the coronavirus lockdown in April.
De Blasio should be able to sleep at night knowing that his wife’s baking prowess is being shared on Twitter while he faces the tough decision of having to make 22,000 layoffs in the city.
The ThriveNYC idea is being called a scam. City council members are starting to ask questions about the money, too. Eric Ulrich of Queens asked a few important questions: “How much taxpayer money will the mayor’s wife pilfer before leaving office? How can she sleep at night hiring these hacks knowing so many other city workers are facing layoffs this fall?” These are good questions indeed – and ones that De Blasio isn’t looking to answer just yet. After all, he doesn’t want to have to take money away from his wife.
The positions held within McCray’s office are cringeworthy – and they’re getting paid a lot for the positions. There’s a speechwriter who is paid $117,000, even though McCray held the same position when she worked for the former mayor. She could easily do that job herself and offer that money back into the NYC budget. She’s also got a senior adviser making $150,000 who reports to her – and that was hired after the hiring freeze that her husband put into position.
Supposedly, her team is working effortlessly to help “improve the lives of New Yorkers” according to Chanel Caraway, the City Hall spokesperson. Maybe so, but that’s a lot of positions and a lot of hefty salaries considering the city of New York is dealing with a major budget crisis at the moment. There’s also the fact that Team McCray hasn’t posted a public update of her schedule since some time in 2019.
Apparently, being married to the mayor of NYC has quite a few generous perks. The nepotism is loud and proud in New York City, especially when the mayor is going to allow almost $2 million to be paid out to his wife’s staffers who are hardly doing enough to garner that kind of money. Hey, who needs to have parks maintained or garbage picked up? At least the First Lady can make videos of baking and have speeches written for her. When was the last time she gave a speech, anyway?
Oh, and as if it couldn’t get any better, McCray is also considering running for the Brooklyn Borough President. Because the Brooklyn Borough president being married to the NYC mayor shouldn’t send up any red flags…right?
De Blasio is a disgrace when it comes to politics. Before he starts cutting all of the positions, he may have to ask his wife for some money out of her generous budget.
