Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio tapped legislative negotiator Dean Fuleihan for Budget Director.
Credit: @NYCTransition
As his signature proposal — raising taxes to fund universal prekindergarten — faces potential opposition in Albany, Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio tapped a legislative veteran to construct his budget.
Incoming Budget Director Dean Fuleihan has served as the main fiscal and policy advisor for the State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, leadership in the Assembly and the majority conference.
In his most-recent post, Fuleihan was an executive vice president for strategic initiatives atSUNY College of Nanoscale Sciene and Engineering.
But de Blasio cited his decades in the state legislature when announcing the choice.
“During the hardest of times, when we had a Republican governor and State Senate determined to leave New York City’s most vulnerable to fend for themselves, Dean Fuleihan stood his ground,” Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
Fuleihan acknowledged that the city faces a “daunting fiscal landscape” but that the administration would still focus on it’s priorities.
“We are going to confront inequality with critical investments in CUNY and other engines for the middle class. We are going to put new energy behind affordable housing and early education. This will be a fair, responsible and progressive budget that takes economic inequality in our city head-on,” Fuleihan said in a statement.
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