Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the recent actions of New York City Council speaker Adrienne Adams “movie-villain type of decisionmaking” in a social media post on Tuesday.
Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram story to discuss “what it actually looks like when politics gets dirty,” accusing the speaker of taking funding away from children’s after-school programs.
“The mayor and the city council speaker decided that they wanted their budget right now. The budget had absolutely unconscionable cuts to education, housing services and a lot more,” Ocasio-Cortez explained.
“How do you actually get that? Well, you create a psychological environment and a political environment that is extremely hostile to dissent,” she continued, adding that the speaker “took away funding the local Boys & Girls Club and their after school programs” for her political gain.
“That is like movie-villian type of decisionmaking, right there. Like why are we bringing kids into this?” she asked.
The Hill has reached out to Adams for comment. Adams’s office told The New York Times that the programs in question did receive some discretionary funding, as well as other city funds.
The funding in question is part of a $101 billion budget deal passed this week. More than $41 million of that funding is discretionary and controlled by Adams, according to the Times.
The Boys & Girls Club wanted to receive $150,000 in city funding; however, it only got half of that, the newspaper noted.
Only six members voted against the budget, including Democrats Tiffany Cabán, Alexa Avilés, Sandy Nurse, Chi Ossé, Charles Barron and Kristin Richardson Jordan.