By Michael V. Cusenza
While in Bayside on Thursday, just a stone’s throw from Citi Field, Mayor Eric Adams swung out of his shoes for the proverbial fences, presenting a balanced, $115.1 billion Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget as the “best budget ever.”
Adams characterized the plan as “a testament to our commitment to making New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to raise a family… And, with the city’s largest 10-year capital plan at $173 billion, we are delivering on infrastructure improvements and transformative generational projects that were talked about for decades but never achieved. This is the budget my mom needed, that my family needed, and, with it, we’re saying to working families: your city has your back.”
Some budget highlights:
- Funding to invest in alternatives to incarceration services, including case management, substance abuse programming, group counseling, housing placement assistance, health care, and other services for adults charged with a crime ($7.6 million, baselined).
- Covering the indirect rate for non-profits that provide re-entry services, indigent defense, supervised release, and other criminal justice programming that was previously funded with stimulus dollars ($6.5 million, baselined).
- Helping to stabilize recently decarcerated individuals with re-entry services, including job readiness training; mental, physical, and behavioral healthcare; counseling; housingassistance; and mentoring ($4.7 million, baselined).
- Extending Project Reset and Rapid Reset, which offer adults who are issued desk Appearance Tickets for eligible non-violent misdemeanors the option to engage in voluntary community-based programming as an alternative means of resolving their criminal cases ($4 million, baselined).
- Accelerating City Fire Department inspections and plan reviews by adding 58 additional staff to the Bureau of Fire Prevention ($3.5 million).
- Increasing the City Department of Building’s capacity to review and process inspection reports and enforce guidelines related to parking structures ($700,000).
- Ongoing support for “Big Apple Connect,” the Adams’ administration’s program to offer high-speed internet and cable to over 150,000 New York City Housing Authority households across 220 developments ($38.8 million).
- Supporting over 700 food pantries across the city through the “Community Food Connection” program at maintained FY 2025 funding levels ($36.1 million).
- Supporting The City University of New York (CUNY) including funding for the “Accelerate, Complete, and Engage” program, the “Accelerated Study in Associate” program, and the Brooklyn Recovery Corps at Medgar Evers College ($30 million).
- Creating more supportive housing by reimagining the “NYC 15/15 Supportive Housing Initiative” by increasing both the base rental assistance rates and annual voucher inflation rates for congregate units ($2.6 million in FY 2027, growing to $29.3 million in FY 2029).
- Funding to maintain investment in the “Fair Fares NYC” to make public transportation more affordable for even more New Yorkers by maintaining eligibility at 145 percent of the federal poverty level ($20 million).
- Funding to provide MetroCards to this summer’s Summer Youth Employment (SYEP) participants ($11 million).
- Funding to support 139 staff to provide legal services and benefits eligibility screenings at housing court, as well as assistance in processing rent arrear one-shots ($10.1 million).
- Funding to continue the City Department of Youth and Community Development’s “Adult Literacy Initiative” to provide literacy and English-language services for adults and out-of-school youth over 16-years old ($10 million).
- Continuing funding for the City Department of Homeless Services End-Of-Line subway station outreach work to bring unsheltered New Yorkers to intake centers and low-barrier shelter bed sites ($9 million).
- Funding for the “NYC Benefits” program to connect New Yorkers to eligible public assistance benefits through contracted community-based organizations ($7.2 million).
- Funding to expand immigration legal services through the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Immigration Legal Support Centers to provide legal screenings, pro se application assistance, case support services, immigration rights workshops, and more ($4.4 million).
- Expanding the City Department of Small Business Services’ capacity for outreach and one-on-one technical assistance to local small businesses ($2.1 million).
- Helping unemployed New Yorkers connect with job opportunities and career support across the city’s public workforce and investing in staffing for the citywide workforce outreach team that coordinates hiring halls ($700,000).
- Launching “After-School for All” that will bring universal after-school to New York City, beginning with over 20,000 more K-5 students by the fall of 2027, totaling 184,000 students. To achieve the Adams administration’s vision for universal after-school, the city will conduct a needs assessment to gather input on future expansion (growing to $331 million in FY 2028, for a total budget of $755 million).
- Hiring up to 3,700 new teachers across the public school system to reduce class sizes and provide more individualized care to students (initial city investment of $150 million growing to $200 million annually, state funding to be reflected later).
- Funding to support over 700 early childhood education seats for three- and four-year-olds in special education ($55 million).
- Funding to ensure every 3-K student will be offered a seat ($20 million).
- Funding for Promise NYC, which provides child care to undocumented children and their families who are not eligible for federally-subsidized extended day and extended year child care ($25 million).
- Funding for community outreach to maximize awareness of and enrollment in early childhood education seats, first announced as part of the city’s 10-point plan to make high-quality child care more affordable and accessible for all New Yorkers ($5 million).
- Funding to address potential communication gaps between schools and parents who do not speak English fluently or who communicate in a language outside of the nine in which New York City Public Schools documents are routinely translated, including through sending postcards, conducting robocalls, and disseminating flyers to help cultivate increased access for families ($4 million).
- Expanding support for the Intensive Reading Education and Development program for early literacy and dyslexia ($3.4 million, growing to $7 million annually, baselined).
Critics immediately took aim at Hizzoner’s hubris.
“This could have actually been the Best Budget Ever, if it gave NYC Emergency Management the funding to offset federal cuts, gave the FDNY the billion dollar investment I’ve been fighting for 3.5 years, or gave the Department of Veterans’ Services more money in their budget so they can properly serve those who have put their lives on the line for us, instead of letting them barely get by on a shoe-string budget,” City Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola said.
Adams noted that the unprecedented and unpredictable federal trade policy recently announced in early April and the subsequent impact on financial markets poses a potential impact to the city’s economy as well as its tax base. The outlook may be updated in the upcoming Adopted Budget, if necessary.
