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DVS Commissioner Yesenia Mata defends preliminary FY27 budget as council presses for clearer data on services
Summary
At a City Council Veterans Committee hearing, Commissioner Yesenia Mata said the Department of Veterans Services’ FY27 preliminary budget of $6.6 million is a snapshot that will change after rollovers and discretionary allocations; members pushed for clearer outcome data, asked about the mayor’s savings mandate and probed declines in VetConnect usage and the pause in Mission Vet Check.
Commissioner Yesenia Mata told the New York City Council Veterans Committee on Tuesday that the Department of Veterans Services (DVS) is operating under a preliminary FY27 budget of $6.6 million and is coordinating with the Office of Management and Budget to avoid interruptions in services.
“DVS exists because of New York City veterans,” Mata said in her opening testimony, adding that New York is home to “about 131,000 veterans” and that the department’s role is to connect those veterans to federal, state and city resources.
The preliminary FY27 figure is smaller than the FY26 adopted baseline, a decline the department attributed to time-limited state dollars and council discretionary funding that are not yet reflected in the January plan. Mata and agency staff said they expect…
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