Tis’ budgeting season once again. While New York City’s budgeting process is moving along, with the city council having already submitted their response to Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget, the state is past due.
“We have a real financial crisis with the $4 billion we had to allocate, closing our union contracts, all those fiscal responsibilities, but we have done an amazing job of making sure that the cuts are not devastating,” Adams said this week in a community conversation. “We got a budget that we’re getting ready to settle now with the City Council. Let us do this thing. We’re going to land this plane, and trust me, we’re going to minimize the pain to make sure we don’t create and aggravate other issues.”
City Budget
In terms of deadlines, the city budget process kicked off in January with the mayor’s preliminary budget, which was $109.4 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2025. Then, following a series of budget hearings with community and agency input from March to April, the city council gave their response on April 1, which was lauded by community-based organizations.
“The City has the resources to protect essential investments into New Yorkers while safeguarding our fiscal health, and prioritizing both goals is the path to a safer, healthier, and more stable city,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement.
The council’s response prioritizes investments into housing, 3K and Pre-K programs, mental health solutions, cultural institutions, libraries, and programs aimed at reducing recidivism. They claimed there’s at least $6.15 billion in newly available resources to help reverse budget cuts and account for expiring federal stimulus funds.
“Against all odds, New York City’s post-COVID economy has proven to be durable and resilient,” said Councilmember Justin Brannan, who chairs the Committee on Finance. “We maintain that the Administration’s blunt cuts were never necessary in the first place, and we will be fighting for and expecting to see full restorations across the board from 3-K to CUNY, our libraries, cultural organizations, and everything in between. Hardworking New Yorkers deserve nothing less. The priorities outlined in our budget response today were born from weeks of preliminary oversight hearings, hours upon hours of budget team meetings, and in consultation with all 51 members. Everything in this budget response is something the Council believes is worth fighting for.”
New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) President and CEO Murad Awawdeh, who’s been an outspoken voice on the migrant crisis, appreciated the council’s “firm response to the mayor’s fear-mongering and budget mismanagement.” Awawdeh said that increases to immigration legal services; investments in multigenerational education from child care programs to Pre-K and 3-K to adult education; investments in interpretation services and bilingual staff in public schools; and expanding access to the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) housing voucher programs regardless of immigration status will be crucial to keeping immigrant families together.
“We have been clear that we don’t want to do anything that will impact the success we’ve shown already in this city,” said Mayor Adams at his in-person meeting this week, “We have to balance the budget by law. We don’t get the opportunity to print new money like the federal government. We have to look at the money that’s coming in and match the money’s that’s coming out.”
The mayor will soon be releasing his executive budget, an updated proposed budget based on the city council’s response, kicking off another round of budget hearings and a council response. The final adopted budget agreement is due by July 1. However, the process can get messy, especially if the state budget and the city budget aren’t in alignment.
State Budget
Governor Kathy Hochul released her $233 billion executive budget FY 2025 back in January. The state’s legislative committees from the Senate and Assembly begin their public budget hearings with state agencies. The state constitution mandates that the state budget be approved by April 1, but historically it’s not unusual for the state to be late.
In the interim, the state legislature passed budget extension bills to keep the government running and state employees paid. Budget negotiations were also suspended for the day on Monday, April 8, to allow lawmakers to observe the North American solar eclipse since it only comes along once every 20 years.
Majority Whip and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn confirmed that a number of issues—like higher education, right to counsel, an equitable school funding formula, the migrant crisis, Medicaid, retail theft, illegal pot shops, and immigration rights—needed to be addressed. But housing and tenants rights are a major sticking point this year and holding up the budget, she said.
Bichotte Hermelyn described it as a three-pronged issue that they’re fighting for: union labor, the inclusion of Black and brown-led real estate development companies in building more housing, and preventing rollbacks to the 2019 rent-stabilization laws that protected tenants from unfair rent hikes.
“The tenants have to have a say,” said Bichotte Hermelyn.
The outrage over housing and tenant rights have even led to arrests. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was arrested for civil disobedience, along with a horde of Housing Justice for All protesters, outside of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) office in Manhattan. “We are blocking the entrance to REBNY just as they have blocked real tenant protections from being enacted in Albany through their disingenuous lobbying and spending,” said Williams in a statement about his arrest last week.
This week, Make the Road Co-Executive Director Jose Lopez and their Housing Lead Organizer Jennifer Hernandez were arrested at the Capitol in Albany while calling out proposed cuts in the state budget.
“The housing plan, we have to get that done because that’s what’s holding up the budget,” said Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman, who’s advocating for paid and unpaid caregivers getting an increase in pay in the state budget. “Last year we spent $320 million in rental arrears and this year they’re asking for $500 million. That’s because we haven’t solved the issue of people who need vouchers and support.”
Most of the electeds Amsterdam News asked projected that the final budget would hopefully be in by the end of this week or next week.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.