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While New York City faces the impending fear that 22,000 Americans are likely to lose their job in October due to a staggering budget deficit, on the other hand, the city’s First Lady enjoys a whopping $2 million staff.

The Democrat-led state headed by Mayor Bill De Blasio faced a gaping budget deficit, as the city struggles to maintain city parks and even regular trash pickups. To cope with the budgetary crisis, the Mayor had to warn New Yorkers that 22,000 people might possibly lose their job.

Unfortunately, DeBlasio’s hiring freeze did not seem to affect First Lady Chirlane McCray’s staffers in the $1.25 billion mental health initiative called ThriveNYC, which helps New Yorkers by posting video tutorials of gingersnap cookies.

According to a Freedom of Information Act request, McCray has originally hired a core team of eight people. This includes a videographer whom the city pays a whopping $70,000 a year. McCray’s office also hired a speechwriter whom they paid a total of $117,000 every year and a senior advisor whom they paid a total of $150,000 every year. The First Lady also hired six other people from different agencies to help out with the billion-dollar initiative.

As a part of their project, McCray released a video of making gingersnap cookies, which clearly does not seem to hold any connection in the subject of mental health.

In a statement by City Hall spokesperson Chanel Caraway, the city tried to defend McCray’s lavish spending by saying that “The First Lady manages a robust portfolio and her team works tirelessly to carry out goals and priorities on issues like mental health.”

Even De Blasio tried to defend his wife’s million-dollar staff. He argued that the initiative was a result of an inter-agency partnership and that New Yorkers needed the program now more than ever. He also noted that NYC will continue to consider the program as a top priority.

Unfortunately, some members of the city council believe that there might be a more sinister plot behind the mental health initiative. “Whatever happened to the money from ThriveNYC?” City Councilman Eric asked. He also described the initiative as a “disgrace”.

This is not the first time that McCray’’s office sparked a major controversy. In a report from the New York Post, the media outlet reported that the organization’s new website has a lack of metrics. In fact, the website revealed that only six months of data were made available for the nearly five-year program.

The Post wrote that a closer look at the website’s splashy geocoded maps and colorful bar graphs showed that over two-thirds of the program’’s data were missing. The site also failed to show the advancement that the initiative had made, especially at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, where a lot of Americans were in need of mental health support.