First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Maria Torres-Springer, I'm the first deputy mayor of the City of New York. Thanks to all of you for joining us here today as we share highlights from our updated fiscal year 25 budget, one that balances our steadfast commitment to strong fiscal management with our recognition of where targeted investments in public safety, affordability, and quality of life are particularly necessary and timely.
So as we release this November plan and look ahead to future plan releases in the months ahead, we will continue to ensure that the budget reflects our values and priorities as an administration. And so to tell you more about the November plan, please join me in welcoming the 110th mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, FDM. And I really thank [Jacques] as well and his team over at the OMB. The challenges we have faced over the last two years and 11 months really took a lot of experience to come up with how do we close these fiscal gaps, live up to our financial responsibilities. And at the same time, how do we go after New Yorkers who are in very challenging places, from our young people to older adults to housing. And [Jacques] and his team, they have really just served the city well.
And so today, as the first deputy mayor stated, we are announcing the November 2024 financial plan update. And thanks to the fiscal management, fiscal year 25 remains balanced at 115 billion dollars. We have the resources to make important investments in both our city and in New Yorkers, while simultaneously ensuring out-year gaps are lower than they were at budget adoption.
At the same time, we have achieved savings of 785 million dollars in fiscal year 25 and 85 million in fiscal year 26, which includes asylum seeker savings of 436 million dollars in fiscal year 25 and 59 million in fiscal year 26. That is almost a half a billion dollars. And our team will keep working to reduce asylum seeker costs in our upcoming financial plans.
We have been clear we are shifting from an emergency to put procedures in place that could be cost saving to taxpayers. And again, the entire team stepping up, looking at how we could bring down the cost of not only our asylum seekers, but how can we find savings in our agencies.
And I want to thank the agencies. It was extremely challenging. The first round of pegs, they were hard, but they understood what we were as a city and leadership is about making those tough decisions. From day one, we have been putting New Yorkers first and have been working to make this city safer, more affordable, and more livable for working class New Yorkers specifically, but all New Yorkers in general.
We remain focused on strong fiscal management and achieving savings in order to make the best use of taxpayers' dollars. That has been my North Star. How do we utilize our taxpayers' dollars? And we've had great partners in all of our agencies in materializing that. We made the smart and tough decisions early. I talked about pegs when I was running for office and we lived up to that responsibility. And it was financially prudent to do so because little did we know we were going to need $6.4 billion in the migrants and asylum seekers. We didn't make those smart decisions early. Starting January 1st, 2022, we would have been in a very dark place as a city, but we did and those decisions were important.
While we made the decisions in dealing with the humanitarian crisis and having to cut budget holes left by expiring stimulus dollars that supported long-term critical programs, we made sure we made the smart fiscal decisions so we can build a future for working people in the city. In this plan, we're stepping up to fund critical programs that have been supported with temporary federal stimulus dollars.
So I want to be clear. The November plan invests in New Yorkers and aims to make their lives easier by prioritizing the services they need. So first, we are improving quality of life, just as importantly, making our city more affordable for working class people. New Yorkers work every day to provide for themselves and their families. They deserve a fair shot and their fair share. We're going to give them just that.
This plan puts over $467 million into the cash assistance program. It's going to assist nearly 570,000 eligible children and adults pay for necessities like housing, groceries and other bills. And we are putting nearly $115 million into our CityFHEPS rental assistance program to close the budget hole left by expiring short-term stimulus dollars so vulnerable New Yorkers can stay in their homes. We know that the cost of living is putting pressure on household budgets. So we are closing a funding gap for groceries to go program which helps eligible food insecure New Yorkers purchase groceries.
And as a former public school graduate, I know how important it is for our public schools. The November plan deepens our commitment to New York City public schools by filling gaps in the budget left by expiring stimulus funding. School nurses are critical to our public schools providing care for our kids. So we are stepping in and continue to fund school contract nurses who had previously been supported through stimulus funds. It is our goal and we will reach that goal that there's a school nurse in every school building. And we are supporting our core technology projects in our public schools with an $80 million investment.
We're also making smart investment in our city clean and green. We are fully containerizing all New York City Department of Parks recreational curbside trash location with 9,000 lockable steel bins. Kicking trash off the curb, reclaiming public space, fighting against rotors and improving the quality of life of New Yorkers. And we're continuing the trash revolution. No one stated that we can do it by containerizing 70 percent of our garbage, but we are doing just that.
Since the start of the administration, we have been committed to cleaning up crime disorder across the five boroughs and cleaning our streets. And we are investing in public safety. So our commitments and our commitment to communities and families and kids can feel safe and be safe. Nothing personified that more than the last two days, what we saw unfold on our streets in Manhattan and what unfold in the community last night in Queens, where a police officer, an innocent bystander was shot. Public safety will continue to be our prerequisite to prosperity.
This November plan funds staffing technology and other needs at the Bellevue Outpost Therapeutic Housing Unit to treat justice-involved patients with serious health conditions. And it expands the New York City Sheriff's Electronic Ankle Monitoring Program with funding 51 new positions to help increase safety. And we know that electronic monitoring can do a job of ensuring people are not only in Rikers Island for low violent or non-violent crimes. And the plan puts $4.7 million into New York City Department of Correction to support programs that reduce recidivism in our city.
Finally, the November plan adds two Police Academy classes, which will put 1,600 new officers on our streets by October 2025, increasing our uniform force to nearly 34,000, getting back and reaching our goal of 35,000 officers patrolling our streets. It's a lot of officers who, alongside all the civilian employees of the NYPD, work day in and day out to keep us safe. They are committed professionals who are led by the team behind me. And they need a full-time leader who is dedicated to spending every minute, every day keeping us safe. And we're going to give you that.
Today, I am announcing the new appointment of the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, Jessica Tisch. She will take her post effective on Monday. Commissioner Tisch is a 12-year veteran of the NYPD and a 17-year veteran of city government, who has dedicated her professional life to serving the people of New York City. She began her career at the NYPD as a counterterrorism analyst, where she eventually rose to the rank of deputy commissioner of Information and Technology and oversaw the NYPD's 911 operations. She served under a commissioner who I have a great deal of respect for, Commissioner Bill Bratton. And I think that time that she has been there, she understood what real leadership looked like.
She spearheaded efforts to use technology to transform the NYPD's fundamental business processes, manage the implementation of the NYPD's body-worn camera, and drove additional efforts to improve transparency and public access to the NYPD by modernizing CompStat. Much of the technology you see now in the New York City Police Department started under Commissioner Tisch. And we want to continue to see that grow.
I have the best crime-fighting apparatus in the history of this city under Chief Maddrey, under Chief Chell, under First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, under Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, and under Deputy Commissioner Tarik, who's over at our DCPI. And Michael Gerber, over at Legal Affairs. And we have a president's eyes in our city on terrorism, of our deputy commissioner of Intelligence.
So the team is in place to fight crime, to continue to drive down crime, to help remove the thousands of guns off our streets. I need someone that's going to take the Police Department into the next century. I need a visionary. I need a person that can look at how we do everyday operations and do what she has done over at the Department of Sanitation and the other fields that she has provided the city government.
Commissioner Tisch does not have to be in city government. She's here because of the love of the city, coming from a family that has been committed and dedicated to the betterment of New York City and using her experience and expertise to take us to the next level. Our department is going to be so much better in the area of innovation. As Chief Maddrey holds down the public safety arm with the partnership of the commissioner, I need the commissioner to move us into what modernized policing should look like so we can not only help those who are here in New York City, but start helping those across the entire country.
What we do here cascades throughout the entire country as we see what Commissioner Daughtry is doing with technologies from drones to other use of technology. And after leaving the NYPD, Commissioner Tisch served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication, where she ran the largest municipal IT organization in the country. Commissioner Tisch additionally served as a core member of the team that managed the city's COVID-19 pandemic response, building and managing critical programs that tangibly serve New Yorkers, including the city's vaccination system.
Most recently, Commissioner Tisch, as you know, has served as the city's second biggest hater of rats in the city. As commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, for nearly three years, Commissioner Tisch has been one of the most successful managers in our administration, leading the city's waste collection, recycling, disposing as well as cleaning and snow removal for approximately 6,500 miles of city streets.
On her leadership, New York City has seen generational changes in sanitation services, including the launch of the trash revolution. Everyone told us it was going to take us five years to start the containerization of garbage, which to date has—we have witnessed 70 percent of trash in New York City will now be required to be containerized. And she's rolled out a weekly universal curbside composting service to all 3.5 million residents in New York City.
But now Commissioner Tisch will take on a new role, fighting a different kind of vermin as commissioner of the greatest police department on the globe. The people of this city have been clear, they agree with what our administration have been fighting for since day one, a safer city where they don't need to worry about walking down the street or having their seven-year-old daughter shot or having their mother stabbed while she's walking the street and leaving an eight-year-old child behind. Our vision is clear.
This will continue to be the safest big city in America, but our goal is to make it the safest city in America. And to ensure New Yorkers have the ability to thrive in our city, we need a strong battle-tested leader who will continue to drive down crime and ensure New Yorkers are safe and feel safe. And I cannot think of a leader more up to the task than Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Together, we continue to build a city for working class people that is safer, more prosperous, and more livable.
Finally, before I invite Commissioner Tisch up, I want to thank Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon for leading the team and serving our city over the last two months after a lifetime of serving our state in this country. I appreciate him stepping in. Tom did not want to do this. I asked him could he come in at the time and stabilize the agency that I love so much. And he agreed to do so. He agreed to come out of his comfortable setting and enter this very loud arena. And I cannot thank him enough.
And I ask him to remain with us and join the deputy mayor of Public Safety, Chauncey Parker, to continue the roles that he could help on organizing on the federal and state level, something he's so familiar with. We appreciate his willingness to quickly come on board and continue to serve the people of this city. And I have a debt of gratitude to him and the people of the City of New York as well. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to the second woman to hold the job of police commissioner of the City of New York, Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Incoming Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Thank you, Mayor Adams, for the opportunities that you have given me to serve the city that I love and for the extraordinary responsibility with which you are entrusting me today. It has been an honor and, frankly, a joy to serve the people of New York City for the past 17 years and, in particular, over the past three years under your leadership.
I'd like to start with a few words to the men and women of the New York City Police Department. I want you to know that I believe very deeply in the nobility of the police and the profession of policing. I've watched with pride over the past three years as you've driven down crime in many categories to pre-pandemic levels, both in our subway system and on our streets, and I know that it has literally taken blood, sweat, and tears. I will always honor that work.
In my dozen years at the department, I had the opportunity to work with some of the most extraordinary public servants, people who run toward the danger when everyone else runs away. It is now my privilege to lead you. And I'm looking forward to coming home.
There's a reason that you're called the finest, and my, was that on full display this week. In the past 48 hours alone, one quick-thinking police officer in Manhattan leapt into action to apprehend a suspect on a random stabbing spree, preventing countless additional civilian casualties, while another was shot in the line of duty, canvassing for a perp on lifetime parole, mind you, who had just committed not one, but two gunpoint robberies in Queens. I have said a misheberach, a prayer for healing, for Officer Rich Wong and the innocent bystander who was injured last night, and they will both remain in my thoughts and in my prayers.
Mayor Adams has been very clear that the priorities are supporting you as you fight crime and disorder, keeping you safe, and bringing the department into the next century, including with the most nimble municipal counterterrorism apparatus in the world and the latest training and technology. We can and we will do all of this as we continue to build public confidence and trust in the police.
To the family and to the loved ones of police officers, my promise and my commitment to you is that I will do everything in my power to look out for and keep safe your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, as if they were my own, and to honor their very honorable work.
Now let me take a moment to speak directly to New Yorkers. I hear you loud and clear. The mission is to keep you safe, to make you feel safe, and to improve your quality of life, to restore dignity and order to every street, every neighborhood, every borough in the City of New York, not just policing of, but policing for. Fear has no place on our streets. In my career, I have always held myself and those who work for me to high standards. And with the partnership of labor, we have consistently risen to meet them. You deserve nothing less.
A few words of gratitude to the 10,000 men and women of the New York City Department of Sanitation. It was literally the dream of a lifetime to serve as this city's sanitation commissioner. Thank you for welcoming me into your garages. Thank you for your hard, honest, dignified work you do keeping the city clean. The past three years have seen a lot of change. In October, we celebrated the largest expansion of sanitation service the city has seen since we started recycling over 20 years ago with the rollout of universal curbside composting. And this month we put in place the first residential containerization rules in over 50 years in New York City.
You have risen to every challenge and you have reinforced in me the belief that while New York City is exceptional, New York City's exceptionalism cannot be an excuse for accepting the status quo. I don't have a lot of regrets as it relates to sanitation because as many of you have noticed, we went after it hard and fast for the past three years. Perhaps the only regret that I do have is that we didn't get to fight a monster snowstorm together. But if we get one this year, remember, I'm only a phone call away and I will probably be calling you.
I would like to call out one member of the department in particular who has been the most incredible partner, colleague, and friend. And that is the president of both Local 831 and the Municipal Labor Committee, the great Harry Nespoli. Harry, you are a gentleman and in your 50 plus years of service to this city, you are doing what every civil servant dreams of, making more than a dent. Here's to 50 more.
I also ask that we take a moment to honor the memory of sanitation worker Richard Errico who tragically lost his life in the line of duty earlier this fall. Richie embodied the very best of the strongest. May his memory continue to be a blessing to this city, to the department, and his loved ones. And may his beautiful family know no further sorrow.
I prepare to leave DSNY with a heavy heart, but also with the utmost confidence in your work and the leadership team in place at the Department of Sanitation. I will just close by saying that like the mayor, I am a person of faith. In the Mishnah, we read of the concept of tikkun olam, which roughly translates to repairing the world. This is the highest possible calling in the Jewish tradition and one that we are all encouraged to inspire towards. It is not lost on me that everyday police officers and sanitation workers put on those uniforms, whether they are Jewish or not, they work for the cause of tikkun olam. It is a sacrifice and a choice. And that is why it has not just been an honor and a privilege, but a true blessing to serve alongside them. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: [Jacques] is going to take questions on the November plan. Commissioner Tisch will have her formal swearing in on Monday.