Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. I would like to start by thanking Speaker Menin, Finance Chair Linda Lee and the entire City Council for their partnership. And I want to thank Sherif Soliman, my director of the Office of Management and Budget, as well as the entire OMB team for their incredible hard work and their devotion to our city. Twenty-one weeks ago, I spoke directly to New Yorkers about the scale of the massive budget crisis that we had inherited. It was January — snow lay on the ground. Our city was reckoning with a $12 billion deficit, a fiscal crisis larger than any since the Great Recession.
For too long, New York City had relied on budgeting tricks instead of budgeting honestly. Costs were hidden, fiscal cliffs were ignored [and] difficult decisions were deferred for someone else to make. We chose a different path. Fourteen weeks later, after long nights and painstaking work, we presented an executive budget that brought that $12 billion gap down to zero. We balanced the budget without asking working New Yorkers to shoulder the burden once again. We balanced the budget without slashing the services that New York is relying on, the cultural institutions and public transportation that connect people to the city and to one another.
And we balanced the budget by governing with a fiscal responsibility that has been absent for far too long from City Hall. We scoured for savings. We found efficiencies in streamlined City government. We refused to repeat the mistakes that created the crisis in the first place. We budgeted honestly. We accounted for the real costs facing our city, and we began building a government that plans for tomorrow instead of pretending that it will never come. We work closely with Governor Hochul and our partners in both Albany and here at the City Council.
And we raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers instead of taking more from those with the least. Throughout this process, I've been reminded of the words of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, “If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists.” If these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics just as well as the capitalists who came before but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles. There is nothing fiscally responsible about balancing the budget on the backs of working people.
Today, six weeks after presenting our executive budget, I am proud to stand alongside Speaker Menin and the City Council to announce that we have successfully negotiated an agreement on a final adopted budget. We have worked together to usher in a new era of fiscal health for our city — one that is sustainable, one that is durable, and one that makes needed investments in a safer, more affordable New York. I've spoken at great length about building a new culture of government excellence. I am proud that this budget reflects that very commitment.
This is a $125.8 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2027. It makes historic investments in affordable housing by expanding rental assistance and creating a new $175 million housing voucher program for New Yorkers in need. We are not just helping tenants; we are helping homeowners as well as we expand the Homeowner Help Desk, and we're supporting those who have endured domestic violence as we fund housing stability microgrants. We are looking out for our students, including students with disabilities who have too often been left behind. And we're supporting our CUNY students both in school and beyond with investments like CUNY's Reconnect, which helps adult New Yorkers return to school and get their degrees, as well as disability services, academic support and so much more.
And we are making public transit more affordable for low-income New Yorkers by increasing the baseline for Fair Fares by $54 million. This budget makes meaningful investments in the health and safety of New Yorkers. As we prepare to mark 25 years since the horrific September 11th terror attacks, we are committing more than $34 million to create a public portal that will finally release documents from across City government related to post-9/11 air quality and health risks. For too long, New Yorkers who have become sick have had to fight for information that should have been theirs from the very beginning. We will provide the transparency that New Yorkers living with post-9/11 health concerns deserve.
We are strengthening mental health services across our city. Working with the Progressive Caucus, we are making sweeping investments in mobile mental health treatment and crisis-to-care programs, including Crisis Respite Centers. And in a time where too many of our fellow New Yorkers are reckoning with discrimination, we will increase the budget of the New York City Commission on Human Rights as well as support our immigrant communities by growing the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Legal Support Hotline.
And we are committing to the public institutions that make New York City the greatest city in the world. We will invest $10 million in each of the next three fiscal years to create a cultural stability fund to help arts organizations weather financial emergencies. And we're baselining funding for the Parks Department that had previously been added one year at a time, funding more than 100 new staff and allowing us to invest in our community gardens and tree stump removal. In addition, we are creating a new Parks pilot program called “Renew Crew” to fix up playgrounds, basketball courts and the fields where New Yorkers spend their summers.
Finally, we're adding $350 million to the city's general reserve, proof positive of our commitment to governing with fiscal responsibility. Above all else, this budget offers a roadmap for the years to come. This is only the first budget of our administration. Many more will follow. And every budget that follows will build on the principles established here. Honest budgeting, fiscal discipline, transparent government and an unwavering belief that working people deserve a City Hall that delivers for them every single day.
We will return to this budget as a reminder of how much more is made possible when we shake off the shackles of the status quo and pursue the transformative change that New Yorkers deserve. That means finding efficiencies; it means cutting waste; and it means taxing the rich. We will return to this budget when we are told, as we so often are, that we must budget with austerity rather than ambition.
And we will return this budget as a model of how to invest in our city, how to place working people at the heart of our political decisions, and how to govern with an enduring commitment to fiscal health and fiscal responsibility. Thank you. And now I would like to invite City Council Speaker Julie Menin to the podium.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin: Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I really want to thank you and your whole team for your partnership to get us to this momentous moment. And I really wanna thank my colleagues in the City Council. First, led by our incredible finance chair, Linda Lee; members of our budget negotiating team; [and] members of our leadership team. And let me just acknowledge our colleagues who are here: Council Member Schulman; Council Member Riley; Deputy Leader Biggs; Council Member Zhuang; Council Member Dinowitz; our Majority Whip Hanks; our Majority Leader Abreu; Council Member Narcisse; Council Member Krishnan; Council Member Wilson; our Deputy Whip Encarnacion; Council Member Aldebol; our deputy leader — Council Member Sandra Ung; Council Member Brewer; Council Member Mealy; Council Member Maloney; Council Member Thomas-Henry; Council Number Wong; Council Member Sanchez; Council Member Hankerson; Council Member Epstein, Council members Louis; Council Member De La Rosa; Council Member Farías; [and] Council Member Salaam. Now, I really want to thank our amazing finance director Nathan Toth and the whole team. Let me just say they've been operating on very little sleep. We've been here around the clock every night, night after night. And I want to thank my incredible senior team: Miguelina Camilo, Jonathan Szott, Simone Jones, Bhav Tibrewal [and] John Tritt. And finally, a special shout out to Paul Shimone and Olivia DeLuca for all of their hard work.
After nearly six months, our entire team has helped us arrive at a budget that we envisioned from the very beginning — a budget that secures the most ever capital, the most ever expense funding for the City Council while also demonstrating prudent fiscal responsibility because it was frankly never a choice between one or the other. A budget that delivers for the most vulnerable New Yorkers, that strengthens the services that they rely on and that safeguards their financial future. A budget that meticulously focuses on creating a city that is safer, more livable and more affordable. And that is a budget we can all be proud of. Within it, there are three transformative investments that we are particularly excited to highlight because they will meaningfully tackle the affordability crisis. This crisis is not merely crushing the people of the city, but it is oftentimes pushing them entirely out of the city. So, with a substantial investment to sensibly expand housing vouchers, we are helping to keep thousands more families in their homes and out of a shelter system.
Yet, more than simply the investment, we reached a transformative agreement on CityFHEPS with the administration. They have agreed to drop the lawsuit against the Council to engage in a settlement that includes a new bill that the Council will be passing today. This new bill creates a fiscally responsible structure for housing vouchers that contains costs, but above all, protects thousands more vulnerable New Yorkers.
Affordable homes alone, however, are not enough, because when New Yorkers leave for the day, the cost of getting around the city can become an overwhelming burden. That's why we are so thrilled to say we've expanded eligibility for Fair Fares to residents earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. This is the largest expansion of Fair Fares in Council history. Specifically, that means for nearly 1.3 million working New Yorkers, we are making public transit more affordable. These are New Yorkers who rely on subways, buses and paratransit to get to work in the morning, to make it to school on time, to access all kinds of opportunities — and for whom this expansion shrinks a significant expense. A more affordable fare makes a big difference and it's a difference we are so excited to be able to deliver on.
These wins provide vital short-term benefits, but we have our eyes on the long-term as well. We are thrilled today to announce that we are enhancing a program called NYC Kids RISE that will, for the first time ever, provide a college savings account with $1,000 to every public-school kindergartner. This will be the nation's largest universal college savings program in the country. And the impact of a college savings account lasts long after students receive their diploma. This can be used for vocational school; it can be used for a two-year community college or a four-year college. Studies show that if you get that ongoing education, that individual will earn almost double the wages over the course of their lifetime as you would solely with a high school education. This is simply one of the most effective ways we can truly address income inequality.
So, we are not simply investing in the future of our children, but in also in the feature of our great city. These investments are only three of the many priorities we successfully fought to include in this budget. We fought for mental health support, for swim safety initiatives [and] for home-delivered meal programs. We fought for our children to bolster their opportunities at a good education and for our seniors to help them age in place with dignity. We fought to fully fund our libraries at the highest levels of libraries have ever received and for HPD's capital increase to build 100 percent affordable housing on top of some of the libraries, which has been a big Council priority. And because our city is the world's cultural capital, we're investing an additional $20 million in our cultural institutions. To support Black homeownership, we've secured more than $5 million in funding for de-theft prevention programs and legal counseling. And to support the management of safe and clean communities, we are restoring $14.4 million in baseline funding for our parks and almost doubling the number of personnel who clean vacant lots.
Our budget will also provide a new pathway to justice. We just announced that our City Council employee, Rafael Rubio, who was wrongly detained by ICE for over 158 days, is now back here at the City Council. He was released on bond thanks to a program the Council has funded for over a decade. And we are so proud to have fully restored funding for a range of legal service providers to do that vital work.
Even with these life-changing investments for millions of New Yorkers, we have ensured that our city is on firm financial footing. Additionally, as something we've advocated for from the start, as the mayor said, we are thrilled that our agreement sets aside over $300 million in additional funding for the city's rainy-day reserves. That's because we believe it is our duty to the people of our city to deliver a balanced, rational and responsible budget, not just for next year, but for many years to come. And this budget is not one that we could have achieved without the administration either. We are aligned on a number of key priorities as you've heard today. The mayor and I have come together in the spirit of collaboration with a shared interest of wanting what is best for our city, and that is the essence of a handshake.
This budget is a win for New Yorkers who can now travel to work without worrying about the cost, who can return home without fearing that they might soon get evicted. It's a win New Yorkers whose aspirations for themselves are eclipsed only by their aspirations for their children. It's a win for New Yorkers who deserve affordability, stability and opportunity, and a government devoted to delivering all three. These are only wins in the budget because at the end of the day, we are one team, and the city is our home. I look forward to adopting the budget. Thank you to everyone who made it possible, and I now want to turn it over to our incredible finance chair, Linda Lee, and let me also recognize that we've been joined by Council Member Pierina Sanchez [and] Council Member Oswald Feliz. And now, our finance chair, Council Member Lee.
Council Member Linda Lee: Thank you so much, Speaker Menin. Thank you, so much Mr. Mayor, as well as our amazing OMB staff, as well our amazing finance staff and Nathan Toth and all of your team. It is such an incredible day today to be here passing this budget. And throughout this budget process, the City Council has remained steadfast in identifying savings and new revenue opportunities, maintaining a disciplined approach to fiscal management in the face of a budget deficit and an ongoing affordability crisis.
From the outset, the Council believed it was possible to achieve a balanced budget without cutting the essential services New Yorkers rely on, drawing from the rainy-day funds or imposing significant property tax increases. And as finance chair, I have witnessed this Council fight tirelessly to deliver a budget that not only protects the city's long-term fiscal health but also makes meaningful investments in programs that improve the lives of New Yorkers. As the speaker mentioned, this budget includes an investment in programs like CityFHEPS, Fair Fairs [and] New York City Kids RISE. And these are programs that will help families prepare for the future, create new opportunities for the next generation, and tackle the issues of affordability.
Through responsible fiscal stewardship, we have protected and invested in the cornerstone and lifelines of our communities — and [I] just wanted to highlight a few, which some have mentioned already. And for our parks — which I know our Council loves parks — we have allocated $14.4 million, as mentioned by the speaker, to restore funding to FY26 levels on top of other priorities to ensure adequate staffing and maintenance of our green spaces. And our libraries, as mentioned also, the Council has added an additional $1 million on top the baseline funding to ensure that we keep seven-day service for New Yorkers who rely on these institutions. And mental health, which is a very special area for me personally, there were also some big investments in our mental health services. And this is evident in the funding of our city's ACT and IMT programs, which are funded at $4.5 million and $11 million respectively, as well as the step-down mobile treatment teams. These are very, very difficult services where they are doing incredible work on the ground, trying to reach people with severe mental illnesses who are homeless and place them into services. So, they are doing God's work.
And by expanding our city treatment teams that provide high intensity wraparound services to individuals experiencing crisis, we are limiting the contact these individuals have with our criminal justice system and closing that revolving door. And our city's mental health response is rooted in compassion to ensure that individuals receive the quality care that they need in their time of crisis. And additionally, our city restored $2.5 million in funding for the Crisis Respite Centers, bringing them back to the FY26 levels. And these evidence-based programs staffed by clinicians and trained peer specialists provide compassionate community-based care for New Yorkers experiencing a mental health crisis. And [I] gotta give a shout out to our older adults. This budget also fights for our oldest New Yorkers — for our oldest New Yorkers, those who built this city, but too often face the threat of food insecurity. And the Council secured $12 million to increase the reimbursement rate for nonprofits to provide culturally competent home delivered meals seven days a week. I got to make sure my Korean grannies get their rice and their seaweed soup and, of course, that we get the halal kosher meals that everyone deserves. And while more work remains, I'm proud that this budget takes an important step towards ensuring that no older New Yorker has to worry about where their next meal will come from, and we should be giving them the dignity that they deserve because they sacrificed so much.
And of course, as mentioned by our speaker, we're reaffirming our commitment to protecting New Yorkers and ensuring that every community is treated with dignity and respect. And just this last week, we welcome back our colleague Rafael Rubio, who was detained by ICE for five months following what should have been a routine appointment. And this case has highlighted the need of why we are restoring $86.4 million for nonprofit providers delivering immigrant legal services. Because, as we know too well, every case is different, and some are much more complicated and involved, so we need to make sure that we're giving our legal service providers what they need.
And in closing, the Council has fought for and will continue to fight for investments that expand opportunity, address affordability crisis and protect our most vulnerable neighbors. This budget demonstrates that fiscal responsibility and compassionate governance are not competing priorities. We can balance our books while making meaningful investments in the people we serve. And that is what responsible stewardship looks like, and that is what New Yorkers deserve. And on top of thanking, of course, our finance team, as coming from the nonprofit sector, I gotta give a shout out to all of our advocates [and] providers that were outside City Hall, helping to guide us on what initiatives were important for New Yorkers. And a lot of those conversations happen loudly outside as well as quietly in the halls of City Hall. So, I just wanted to give them a special shout out as well. So, thank you all so much. And we did it!
Question: I noticed that the budget doesn't appear to include any increase numbers for NYPD headcount. Can you explain the rationale for that?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I've been talking to all agency heads about ways to find savings. And Commissioner Tisch and I were able to identify ways to keep the NYPD head count at the originally authorized 35,000, while also meeting all of our crime-fighting needs and implementing the new programs that were announced earlier this year.
Question: I wanted to ask you, you know — this — what's been holding up the budget from what I'm hearing, has been the CityFHEPS fight. You, on the campaign, promised to expand this program. Why did this come to the final moment if this has been a priority for members of the progressive caucus who are supposedly your allies? Why did it have to come to 11th or 12th hour?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I'm proud that the speaker and I — and all of our teams — were able to come to an agreement that, as the speaker said, is a win for all New Yorkers. And I've been clear about my support for this program, my support of the intent of delivering for the neediest New Yorker, and what we announced today is a $175 million investment into helping those very New Yorkers stay in their homes. And we're also announcing that while resolving a lawsuit that the prior administration had little interest in negotiating, and frankly, even less in bringing to an end. And we do all of this as we write a new chapter in what it can look like to deliver for the city.
Question: Mr. Mayor, congratulations on you both on the budget. I would like to know a little more about how you and the police commissioner worked out the headcount issue, but my question is: What is the status of the cash flow issues that your administration was concerned about a couple of weeks ago, and can you update us specifically on how you addressed it? Was there help from the state? Was there some other way that you figured out how to avoid your cash balance dropping too low?
Mayor Mamdani: So, our partners in the non-profit sector, as you heard from Finance Chair Lee, deliver vital services to New Yorkers and we will send all eligible non-profits the 50 percent advance payments that would put us in full compliance with the Council law. I'm gonna pass it over to Budget Director Soliman to add some additional details.
Sherif Soliman, Director, Mayor's Office of Management and Budget: Thank you, mayor. So, it's fairly routine that we would look at inflows and outflows throughout the year, look at when tax revenues are coming in, look at where categorical grants are coming. And so, we worked with the Comptroller's Office; we worked with the Department of Finance; and we understood those inflows and out flows and were able to confirm at the end of that analysis that we could in fact make that 50 percent advance payment to non-profits.
Question: Can you tell us what now happens to the litigation? Does this effectively end it over FHEPS? And what is sort of the longer-term plan? Obviously, there are just too many people numerically in shelter who need vouchers. And understanding this is very expensive, can you talk a little bit about the longer-term plan to deal with that crisis?
Mayor Mamdani: I think to the first point, as you as you heard the speaker mention, we have not only been negotiating the amount of money that we're going to be investing into a new rental assistance program, but also how to bring to an end what we inherited from the prior administration in a lawsuit with the City Council. And we are resolving that lawsuit with a commitment, not only to the intent of the legislation, but the fiscal responsibility that for far too long has been absent in what City Hall has been doing in years past. And as we've also said, we know that the number one crisis New Yorkers are facing is the cost of living. And we have to address that crisis in a comprehensive manner. That means providing assistance in rental payments. That also means providing a new historic baseline for Fair Fares. And that also means working together to build more housing than we have seen in the city's recent history. I'll pass it over to our speaker.
City Council Speaker Menin: Thank you, [so] much for the question. So, since I became speaker in January, we have fought very hard to work on a settlement, because our position was there is no need to keep this endless costly litigation against the City Council. We should enter a responsible settlement that protects vulnerable New Yorkers and at the same time contains the cost of FHEPS, which we know has ballooned extremely high. We also know from Comptroller DiNapoli's audit of the FHEPS program that there were not the sufficient guardrails and accountability that there need to be embedded into the program. So, the great news today is that we are announcing in addition to the expansion of FHEPs, and I wanna thank Council Member Sanchez for her great work on this. In addition to the expansion of FHEPS, which is something we fought very hard for a responsible expansion, at the same time we are doing a new bill that changes the program in the sense that HPD will be administering the new program. The new program takes it from an entitlement program to one that is subject to appropriations.
Question: I have a very specific program-related question. NYC Benefits, which was introduced a few years ago to assist New Yorkers in applying for benefits, and especially at a time when federal benefits are getting cut — can you confirm that that is in this final budget?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll just pass it over to my budget director.
Director Soliman: So, NYC benefits is in [the budget]. We're happy to follow up with you on the numbers.
Question: I'm wondering if you see this Fair Fares expansion as an acceptable alternate path to free busses. Are you still committed to doing that in four years? And then for Speaker Menin, I wonder if you agree with the mayor's sentiment early in his remarks that, essentially paraphrasing here, socialists can solve the problems of capitalism and work to end the mismanagement under Adams. Do you think socialism is the solution here?
Mayor Mamdani: I'll say on the first question, when I was running for mayor, I spoke about the importance of raising eligibility to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And this does that. We raised this Fair Fares eligibility to a historic amount. And we also do so while being fully committed to delivering busses that are not only fast, but also free. And that is part of our medium-term vision, our long-term vision. And we do this because we want to ensure that, in the nation's most expensive city, there is no one that is priced out of exploring their own city and traveling, whether it be for work, whether to visit family or whether it just be for fun. And we can believe and fight for all of these things at the same time.
City Council Speaker Menin: Thank you [for] the question. Look, I don't think that there's an ideological way to pick up the trash. I think Fiorello La Guardia said it best in that regard. I think this is about making sure that we're delivering for New Yorkers, which is exactly what this budget does, whether it's [the] expansion of Fair Fares to the largest level we've ever seen, whether it’s our new NYC Kids RISE program, seating every public school kindergartner with $1,000 in the college savings account; whether it's the responsible expansion of FHEPS. And yet a new bill that will focus on cost containment, as well as all of the wins, many of which we've outlined. This is an incredible win for New Yorkers and we are very, very proud to have reached this agreement.
Mayor Mamdani: I'm just going to add one last thing before we wrap up, which is you've heard from both the speaker and myself, I do just want all of us to underline that for all of the faces that you see here, for all the names that you have heard, truly the staff on both the City Council [and] the administration have poured so many days, weeks, months into this process and we are deeply, deeply appreciative of all of them.
The further you look from the microphone, the more you will find people who made this happen. And you will find them in all of the different corridors. And I think, in many ways, it is reflective of how our city runs, how our city works. It's city workers who do it every single day. And I know that the Council will join in just saying thank you to all of those workers for this and for everything that we do. Thank you.