Crowd Sourcing: New York City Budget Mad Libs!

Source: The Vera Institute of Justice. For more complete information on jail budgets, see What Jails Cost: A Look at Spending in America’s Large Cities (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2021), https://perma.cc/S2VF-V3WE.

James put it out there: In the post about the White Street jail construction project, there was a reference to a Vera Institute of Justice study, “A Look Inside the New York City Correction Budget,” that concluded that “New York City spends more than any other big city in the country to incarcerate far fewer people.”

And then James’ comment: “This could be a fun Mad Lib!” (I inserted a link for those of you too young to remember the #1 sleepover/car ride/bus trip game of the 1960s.) And even though this is a bit of a downer, it’s a super fun game for the cynics (all of us?) out there.

So here goes.

“New York City spends more than any other big city in the country to [VERB] far fewer [NOUN].”

Have at it.

 

2 Comments

  1. New York City spends more than any other big city in the country to eat far fewer slices of pizza

  2. Construct / miles of a subway or rail line
    House / homeless
    Treat / addicts and mentally ill
    Pay / transit employees
    Maintain / miles of roads and highways
    Educate / kids performing at grade level
    Inspect / structurally unsound parking garages

    The state budget and new taxes are being debated right now. These Mad Libs make it obvious that NYS and NYC do not have a revenue problem constraining service delivery. We’re not getting value for our money.

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