Transcript: Mayor Adams Releases "Best Budget Ever," Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget Makes Significant Investments in Safety, Affordability, and Quality of Life, Expands Opportunities for Working-Class New Yorkers

May 1, 2025

Tracy Martinez, Principal, Bayside High School: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to Bayside High School. It is my pleasure to welcome you here. My name is Tracy Martinez, and it is my honor to serve as principal of Bayside High School. I'm delighted to welcome our diverse group of attendees, our dedicated labor leaders, elected officials, faith-based representatives, business partners, and community advocates who all make our city thrive. 

I would also like to acknowledge our city commissioners and our deputy mayors, and all who work tirelessly to serve our residents. A very special welcome to Mayor Eric Adams, a proud Bayside alumnus who walked these very halls and exemplifies the heights our students can reach. We are honored to have Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos with us today. Your leadership continues to transform our schools and create opportunities for all of our students. Thank you very much. 

A special welcome to our students that are here today. You represent the bright future of our city. Your presence reminds us why we do the work that we do and why it matters. Speaking of bright futures, I have the honor of introducing a remarkable Bayside High School student. Kaylee Marcus is a junior at Bayside High School. We are a shining example of educational excellence. Bayside stands as a wall-to-wall CTE school, a career technical education school. We have an impressive 98 percent graduation rate with over 3,000 students. 

Kaylee exemplifies the diverse talents of our students here at Bayside High School. As a student in the digital art and design program, she brings creativity to everything she does. From her illustrations to her performance on stage, you might recognize her in our own high school rendition of Grease. Beyond her artistic achievements, Kaylee is on track to complete all of her graduation requirements by her junior year. This is a testament to her hard work and dedication. So please join me in welcoming Kaylee to the podium to introduce our mayor.

Kaylee Marcus: Hi, my name is Kaylee Marcus and I am excited to speak to you today. Throughout my time in school, I struggled with a stutter and interacting with people my age. In my time at Bayside High School, I have enjoyed many after school programs such as Drama Club where I gained experiences in acting. 

As a student in the digital art and design CTE program offered here, I have enjoyed all the art courses I have been exposed to. These courses allowed me to be creative and express myself through my art. They have made me feel college and career ready. 

At Bayside, my teachers helped me to focus and learn better. The programs I have been a part of have helped me feel comfortable and helped me build a community that will last a lifetime. I struggled making connections and friendships in elementary school and middle school, but Bayside gives me a positive and inclusive community while also allowing me to gain real world experiences and opportunities such as a character design internship. 

Bayside High School continues to encourage me to achieve my dreams. Many of my friends have similar experiences and it matters when our schools and our leaders can understand us and fully support us. Bayside High School continues to deepen our connections with our alumni every day. We value their words of wisdom and guidance to support our continued success. Listening to their experiences is always so beneficial. 

Today I am honored to welcome another high school Bayside alum back to our building. As a Bayside High School graduate, Mayor Eric Adams continues to support all public schools and actively demonstrate how valuable his time at Bayside High School was. With that, I am honored to introduce the 110th mayor of New York City and proud graduate of Bayside High School, Eric Adams. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Man, oh, man. Just think about it for a moment, looking at these young people. The diversity, coming from different backgrounds, different parts of the globe, just sitting here, just believing everything is possible. And there's a level of innocence that's attached to this moment, that, you know, their pathways are endless on what they could accomplish and what they could do. 

So it was hard to believe when I was backstage and I saw him, I said, he reminds me so much of me. You know, that energy. I had to sit in the first seat in the first row in every class. My teacher had to watch me all the time. I was always in mischief, putting gum in someone's hair, you know, looking at my comic book instead of my work, all the things that were distractions. 

And you know what, it's a great moment, sitting on that stage and just looking at this building and this auditorium and leaving here as a student that was dyslexic and now returning as a mayor that's elected. What a feeling. And to my fellow New Yorkers, it is an honor to be back at Bayside High School here in Queens. I spent four years at this school, but I can't remember ever stepping foot on this stage. Who would have thought that almost 50 years later, I'll be performing in front of all of you, talking about a budget and the economy. 

Well, for this year's budget address, I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to deliver it in a place where you will soon be able to feel the impacts of our investments. No one will feel the impact more than our students, because this is the best budget ever for families and young people. You are our future. 

But not only are these children our future, they are our present. And you are the reason we wake up every morning and the reason I dedicated my life to public service. I see myself in you, especially this one here. And I want you all to believe that someday you too can become mayor. You too can stand on this stage and manage the government of New York City. 

So when my team and I came together to develop this budget, I thought of my younger self and how my mother worked three jobs just to put food on the table for me and my siblings. She was betrayed by the city. This budget is for her and it's for young Eric who struggled in life and in school. And for all of you, this budget makes sure that you don't have to struggle the way my family and I did. 

The bills are the work of our team has done to make sure that New York City is the best place to raise a family and the best place to realize the American dream. This is not a budget that favors the few, it is a budget for all New Yorkers. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget is the best budget ever. Let me tell you how. 

Next year we are adding $1.4 billion to protect programs that were not funded in the coming year. Some had been funded with the short term stimulus dollars that are expiring. And about $675 million of those programs are baseline. Baseline, what does that mean? That means the programs will be a permanent part of the city's budget. Year after year, now and forever. Baselining means forever. So to my team behind me, when I say baseline, you say forever. Baseline. 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: Baseline. 

Audience: Forever! 

Mayor Adams: I feel like we started the Grease performance. Baseline is forever. Baseline is forever. Great job. You get an A+ for that and we're going to make sure we resonate that throughout the entire day. 

So that $1.4 billion also invests in making New York City the best place to live, work and raise a family. No matter your means or your background. I'll say that again. Over a billion dollars of new money for New York's priorities. That's more than a billion dollars of not worrying about whether your child has a place to go after school. Whether you have the resources you need to stay in your home. If the streets will be clean enough to walk through and so much more. 

Our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget, makes upstream investments in education, critical services, public safety and most importantly affordability. So that any of you can achieve your full potential and pursue your dreams without financial roadblocks. Let me share a few of our key investments. 

I'll start with after school for all. Ana, I know you'll love that. Ana and I announced that yesterday. We went down the slide, she cheated and got ahead of me. Twenty years ago, Mayor Bloomberg created a revolutionary program because he knew that learning doesn't stop when the school day ends. But since so many families still need childcare, we are now investing an additional $331 million to bring after school programs to over 20,000 additional K-5 students over the next three school years. The total budget for after school now runs to $755 million and this funding will be baseline. 

And if I said baseline, we say what? 

Audience: Forever! 

Mayor Adams: That's right. Funding for after school for all will be permanent forever. Our parents shouldn't have to choose between picking up their child or working to put food on the table. And by the start of the 2027 school year, more than 184,000 K-8 grade students will be able to attend after school for free. 

Like that, Commissioner Howard? Just by the mere fact you stood, Commissioner Howard, I know you were mischievous in school. 

With this investment, we are making life easier for families across the five boroughs for generations to come. And we did not stop there. We added $192 million more each year to protect early childhood education programs. That's right, D.M. This includes support for free, quality 3K and Pre-K for students with disabilities. This funding will be baseline. 

And when I say baseline, you say? 

Audience: Forever! 

Mayor Adams: And we added funding to ensure that every student on a 3K waitlist was offered a seat. We have also expanded the extended day programs for young children. This would allow parents to hold down a job or get an education while still having the comfort of knowing that their children are in a safe educational environment. These investments had previously been one year at a time. Now they are baseline. And when I say baseline, we say? 

Audience: Forever! 

Mayor Adams: They are now permanently embedded in the city's budget. And of course, our young people also included undocumented children. We are supporting Promise NYC. Where is he? I know he's out there somewhere. Where's Manny? For you, brother. A dreamer that's now living the dream. 

Promise NYC provides child care for children from families that are not eligible for federal subsidies due to their immigration status. To help our students learn and thrive, we are investing $150 million to reduce the size of our classes by hiring nearly 3,700 new teachers. That's right. Starting this fall, we will have nearly 3,700 new teachers across our public school system so that each child can receive the individualized attention they deserve. 

We're also investing $298 million for nurses so students can stay healthy. Funding for nurses is baseline. And when we say baseline, you say? 

Audience: Forever! 

Mayor Adams: Additionally, we are investing in arts education so that our children have the opportunity to play an instrument in their school, band, or perform in a production of Grease like the students here at Bayside High will be doing tonight. I would never have been able to perform in a production like that, but don't have the style or the grace of dance. But you know what? I also don't have the hair to put it on. Even back then. 

But all joking aside, I strongly believe arts education should not be considered a privilege. It is an essential part of our students' learning experience. Who's performing tonight? Any of you performing tonight? Okay. 

Our new funding will also support computer science education, tutoring, teachers, recruitment, civics for all and more. All of these programs are baseline. And when I say baseline, you say? 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: That means they last forever and ever and ever. And I don't have these opportunities. I didn't have them growing up. But our administration wants to make sure that every New York City public school student benefits from them. 

You may not know it, but when I was young, I hated to go to school. I had dyslexia that wasn't diagnosed for many years, so I struggled to learn how to read. Other children picked on me and called me stupid and dumb. It wasn't until college that I realized I just needed the right help. Now our students can get the help sooner, more easily. 

We're expanding our groundbreaking New York City Reads program, which uses proven science of reading and phonics-based methods so that all of our public school students can flourish. Good job, chancellor. We're making sure that families who don't speak English fluently are able to communicate with their schools so their children have a chance to fulfill the American dream as well. That dream includes higher education. And I am proud to have graduated from CUNY, our city's world-class college system that puts students on an upward path regardless of their background or means. 

In this budget, we are funding programs that help hardworking New York City college students stay on track to complete their bachelor's or associate's degree at CUNY. We are also permanently restoring $96 million of savings to the CUNY system so that it can continue to serve our students in the years to come. That restoration is baseline. And when I say baseline, we say? 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: I hope many of you will be attending a CUNY school in the future so that you can continue to follow your dreams. Our cultural organizations keep our city vibrant and make it a great place to live and raise children and welcome people from all over the globe. Now and yet another first, we're investing $45 million in support for organizations that are [inaudible] your lives across the five boroughs. You've got to love that diva Laurie Cumbo.

This includes museums, historical societies, and botanical gardens as well as neighborhood groups. So find one that is closest to you or matches your interests and make sure to visit because we have something for everyone in NYC. Oh wait, that funding is also baseline. If I say baseline, you say? 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adamns: Like our cultural institutions, our public libraries are priceless storehouses of knowledge. They are places where you can pick up a book, attend a class, use the internet, or cool down on a hot summer's day. And we are now adding more funding to support library operations citywide. That means we are adding funding to the New York, Queens, and Brooklyn library system as well as to our world-class New York research library. This is a big deal. Now these cultural institutions and libraries, as well as those who use and love them, we'll have peace of mind knowing they are secure. 

Our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget looks out for the New Yorkers who need our help the most and protect services that strengthen our communities. By carefully managing our city finances and the role that OMB and Jaques, you have done for three years and four months, you have served this city well, Jacques. We cannot thank you enough. Sak pase.

We have been able to add nearly $840 million this fiscal year alone to protect services that were facing budget cliffs. These include Medicaid, rental assistance, foster care services, social services for seniors, New York City's cash assistance contribution, and shelters for victims of domestic violence. These investments are in addition to nearly $1.2 billion we invested for similar needs in the Fiscal Year 2026 Preliminary Budget. Give yourself a minute to just let that sink in. 

$1.2 billion plus $840 million more for our most vulnerable neighbors this year alone. And next year we will be protecting $1.4 billion for other critical programs that are facing fiscal cliffs. We're in school, so let's do the math. That equals nearly $3.5 billion over two fiscal years to make sure that programs New Yorkers need and deserve will be available to them. That is what I have been thinking about. 

I have been thinking about this from day one as your mayor. What New Yorkers need, and it all starts with public safety. As a former NYPD officer who was one of the founders of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, I know it is our duty to balance public safety with justice. We can and must have both. 

Today, New York City remains the safest big city in America. And under our watch, that will not change. Major crime was down by double digits over the last first quarter of this year, especially shootings and homicides, which were at the lowest and second lowest levels in recorded history, respectively. Subway crime was also down by double digits. 

Now we're tackling quality of life issues by creating a special 1,500-member division within the NYPD for that purpose. We will also bring on board 3,400 new police officers this year to put New York City on the path to having more than 35,000 uniformed officers by next fall. Job well done, Commissioner Tisch. I know she's here somewhere. 

And while more police officers are vital to responding to crime, I've always said that we must also invest in upstream solutions to prevent young people from falling into the river of violence. When I was 15, I got on the wrong side of the law and was arrested, but I was given a second chance. Without that chance, I wouldn't be where I am today. And all New Yorkers deserve that same opportunity to turn their lives around. 

That is why we are investing in providing lawyers to people who can't afford them. This protects them. It protects their constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases. We're also funding alternatives to incarceration, reentry service, job training, behavioral health care, and more. And all of this funding is baseline. When I say baseline, we say…

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: They're going to wake up in their sleep saying, “Baseline.” 

This administration has always believed that a bend in the road should not be the end of the road. It should be an opportunity to make the turn, and that only upstream solutions combined with enforcement will keep our city safe in the long run. 

Public safety includes safer infrastructure, which is why we are doubling down on our efforts to make sure our city buildings and parking structures meet or exceed safety standards. So we are adding extra staff to the FDNY's Bureau of Fire Prevention and increasing the New York City Department of Buildings capacity to process inspection reports and enforce guidelines related to parking structure. We're giving you the help you need, Jimmy, so to make sure we keep this city safe. 

A great educational system, quality child care, and a safe city are only the beginning. To make New York City the best place to raise a family, we must also tackle our generational housing and affordability crisis. My own family struggled with housing insecurity. My mother would sometimes send me and my siblings to school here at Bayside with garbage bags filled with our clothes because we didn't know if we would be able to return home at the end of the day and not have the marshals throw us out. 

I know that it is much harder to succeed in school, hold down a job, or take care of your family if you are constantly worrying about whether or not you have a roof over your head. That is why we are investing an additional $46 million to bring the total to $339 million over the next few fiscal years. This will revitalize the city's 15-for-15 supportive housing initiative and create and preserve over 5,800 supportive homes. These affordable homes will provide vulnerable New Yorkers with a place to call their own. Good job HPD.

As well as social services that build on our work tackling homelessness and severe mental illness. This program, to my crew that's behind me that's getting restless, this program is going to be baseline. And baseline means what? 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: We are also fully funding the Manhattan Plan that we announced in our State of the City address earlier this year to rezone parts of the Borough and unlock an additional 100,000 homes for New Yorkers over the next decade. Where's Dan? Good job, Dan, what you're doing. 

All of this builds on the unparalleled record we have achieved on housing. We made history last year when we passed our landmark legislation of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, which will create 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years. City of Yes combined with our neighborhood rezoners will deliver 30 percent more units of housing in less than four years than the previous 20 years combined. Combined. This is nearly double the projections during my friend Michael Bloomberg's 12 years in office and nearly four times the projections of my friend Mayor de Blasio's administration. 

To make the city more affordable, we have also previously fought and won the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. And last year, we launched $2 billion of medical debt relief, and we are very hopeful that this year in Albany we will pass Axe the Tax for the Working Class. This will eliminate and cut city personal income taxes for 582,000 filers and their families and put $63 million back into their pockets. 

We're also maintaining our investment in the Fair Fares NYCD program, which makes public transportation more affordable for eligible New Yorkers. And once again, we're providing free MetroCards for summer youth employment participants. I hope all of you have put in your application for the program this summer. 

New York City values our older neighbors as well as our youth. We are proud to restore funding for the Departments for the Aging's core programs like older adult centers and home-delivered meals. This funding for your grandmothers is baseline, and so you can tell your grandmothers baseline means what? 

Audience: Forever!

Mayor Adams: Another necessity for New Yorkers is broadband internet. That is why we are continuing to offer free broadband and cable to over 150,000 NYCHA families across 200 developments as part of our Big Apple Connect. We are funding staffing for our hiring halls to be able to better serve every New Yorker who wants a job, and we're expanding our capacity to offer advice and technical assistance to small businesses. 

This funding is baseline, and we know that means forever, and because our city should look as good as the people who live here, our budget commits annual funding to maintain litter pickup and to service litter bins and parks and greenways. This funding is also baseline, but we know there are still violators out there who don't prioritize cleanliness, so we are adding funding every fiscal year to continue targeting cleaning of public spaces and areas with persistent littering. This is also baseline. 

New York City is the greatest city in the world, and our administration has never shied away from thinking big to ensure we remain the greatest. We're thinking big on childcare, big on housing, on sanitation, and now we're thinking big on infrastructure. In Fiscal Year ‘26 Preliminary Budget, we announced the city's largest 10-year capital plan at $170 billion. Today we're beating that record by increasing the capital plan to a record $173 billion over the next decade. 

This investment will result in much-needed improvements to our infrastructure, delivering on generational projects that we talked about for decades but never achieved until we came into office. This includes better roads, bridges, schools, and libraries, more housing, improved water and sewer facilities, and more reliable transportation systems across the five boroughs. 

Along with other major projects we have announced in each borough, we're adding matching funds to support the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project, which will support the Harbor of the Future. We are also committing another $250 million to fully fund the Fifth Avenue of the Future project. This plan reimagined this iconic street from Bryant Park to Central Park, where they focus on pedestrians. It would also support all the businesses that line Fifth Avenue and contribute millions to our economy. And we are funding improvements for public waterfront access to the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. 

Every item we are listing today is a result of strong fiscal management over three years. Despite facing two storms, the COVID-19 pandemic and the influx of asylum seekers, our administration has succeeded in helping New York City thrive by keeping a cool head and taking decisive action. If you don't believe me, listen to the experts. 

The four internationally recognized independent agencies, the rating agency repeatedly upheld our strong bond ratings. They have praised our strong fiscal management and resilience. They are saying you can trust New York City today and in the future. Now the numbers. Pay attention because they are important, and there will be a quiz after. 

The Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget is balanced at $115.1 billion. Our policies have set the table for a strong local economy. This growth is– this alone, or I should say along with the growth in the national economy, this has enabled us to increase our tax revenue forecast in this plan by $1.7 billion in Fiscal Year 2025, and $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2026. 

We know you New Yorkers work hard for the money, and that's why we have remained focused on saving taxpayers' dollars. In this plan, I'm proud to announce that we have achieved savings of nearly $2 billion over Fiscal Year ‘25 and ‘26. That includes nearly $1.5 billion in asylum seeker savings. Thanks to our strong fiscal management, we were able to achieve these savings without cutting programs or services, without raising taxes on New Yorkers by a single penny, and without one layoff of any city worker. That is impressive. 

Strong fiscal management also means maintaining reserves as a hedge against the unexpected. That is why our administration has set aside a record $8.5 billion. This is the highest level of budget reserves in New York City's history. It includes $2 billion in our rainy day fund, also a record level. And all of these factors together make our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget the best budget ever. 

However, we see uncertainty on the horizon due to recent federal policy, shifts in tariffs and trade action, immigration and regulatory policy shifts. The pace of job gain is also slowing. Economic uncertainty has increased. Wall Street profits have been strong but are expected to slow, and markets are in flux. We will closely monitor the impact of the federal administration's actions on our national, state, and local economies, and we are ready to stand up to make sure New Yorkers get every dollar they deserve. 

And rest assured, we will stay true to the strong fiscal management that has guided our administration and ensure that New York remains the safest big city in America and the best place to raise a family. 

When I think about the young Eric Adams who came to school here every single day struggling with dyslexia, thinking about how I could support my mother, unsure about what my life would look like. These are the investments that my family and I needed but never got. Our best budget ever changes that, and family gives working people the support they need to thrive in the greatest city in the world. It tells every New Yorker, your city has your back, now and forever. 

We didn't do this alone. I also invited our four deputy mayors who worked with us to make this happen, to ask them to join us, and it happened automatically. I thank you for your contribution, and I thank our new deputy mayors who picked up the baton and continued. Our new deputy mayors, can you stand up? Thank you so much. It's a continuation, continuation of the progress. 

Let me say this to the students who are here, thank you. Thank you. Just as you're standing at my back, I got your back. I want to tell you, don't aspire to be perfect, just aspire to be dedicated. You're going to make mistakes, there are going to be days where you're going to wish you got out of bed, and there are going to be days where you wish you didn't get out of bed. 

You're going to stumble, you're going to fall, people are going to talk about you, they're going to laugh at you, they're going to tell you what you can't do, they're going to call you names, they're going to look at you and expect for you not to be who you want to be. 

Tell all of your colleagues and all of your friends that there was a little boy in this school called Eric Adams, they called him the dumb student, they said he'll never make anything in his life. But right now you're standing on the stage with that little young student that now is the mayor of the City of New York. I cannot thank you enough. Thank you. 

[...]

Question: Hi, okay. I'm curious, I have two questions. First, why are you putting no additional money into reserves this year given the likelihood or possibility of recession and federal budget cuts? And on the same token, why are your revenue forecasts for the coming years so relatively positive given the headwind?

Jacques Jiha, Director, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget: First one is we believe we have adequate reserves at $8.5 billion. This is a record level of reserves that we currently have. Regarding our upbeat scenario that you described, this year we're going at 8 percent. And next year we're projecting going at 1 percent. So we're projecting a slowdown in growth in tax revenues. So the adjustment we have is just, as you know, OMB is very conservative in our approach because we tend to– we have long-term expenses that rely on fluctuating income revenues. So therefore we tend to be extremely conservative. We don't want to miss the mark so that we don't make cuts to the budget. 

So therefore we adjusted upward our revenue forecast because of what we see in the economy. First quarter was very, very, very strong. This last year was a very strong year for us. And as I said, we tend to be very conservative in our approach in terms of forecasting next year's revenue about 1 percent. And then we have very strong reserves. So we believe we are in a very good position to deal with the uncertainties coming from D.C.

Mayor Adams: Is it my imagination or do classrooms look smaller when you grow up? I remember this classroom from being larger, you know that? What high school did you go to? 

Question: Arlington High School, Poughkeepsie, New York. 

Mayor Adams: Poughkeepsie, okay. That's the start of the question. I want to know if you went to high school. Yes, where did you go to high school?

Question: I went to school in Florida, but my son goes to school here. 

Mayor Adams: He's in high school? 

Question: No, he's a child, but he will. Well, my family first immigrated to East New York when they came, okay? So maybe I'm coming back. 

Mayor Adams: Love it, love it. 

Question: My first question is, I noticed that in the budget you said you used $1 billion in city resources to fully offset the $1 billion you had assumed the state would give you. Why didn’t they give you that $1 billion for the asylum-seeker crisis? 

And then my second question is, the budget only went up half a billion dollars it seems from the preliminary budget that you announced with all these new funding programs. Can you explain that math and that?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and I'll let Jacques do so, but I also want to point out the inconsistency and outrage that we're hearing from local officials and the consistency that I have. I critique the federal government and previous administration when they shortchange us, and I critique when we get callback of $80 million under this administration. 

Where's the outrage from those who are outraged on the federal government? Why aren't they outraged that we're not getting $1 billion from migrants and asylum-seekers? The problem didn't go away. We still have 39,000. Of course, that's $1 billion. I'm not hearing anyone that is tripping over themselves to critique the federal government, but why aren't we critiquing the state government? 

And we have an additional over $300 million of a childcare voucher program that they put in place and told us to make sure that we enroll people. They always fund it. They take $300 million away. Like, where's the outrage? Where's the noise? 

Protecting New York City should not determine what party is in office. Everyone should be protecting New York City, and I'm not hearing any voices being raised at $1.3 billion and an additional $300 million from other areas. And I'm not hearing no one talk about that. No one is talking about the shortchanging of New York City on the state level. We're talking about it on the federal level. They didn't talk about it on the federal level under the previous administration when we were losing $7.5 billion. 

This is the inconsistency that I've been talking about already. You critique me, but you should be critiquing all of these electives that are silent when we're not getting our fair share from Albany. It's not right. New York City is the economic engine of the state and of the country. We send more money to D.C., more money to Albany than we get back. But you cannot just be outraged based on federal policies because you have an issue with who's in the White House. We need to be consistent. Jacques, do you want to answer her question?

Jiha: We added about $2 billion for the fiscal year in terms of savings and another $1.7 and $2.7 billion in terms of revenues. These are the resources that we use to backfill the aid that we expected from the state and also to fund all the new programs.

Question: My question was, though, why didn't you get it? What happened? Did the negotiations break down? What happened there that you didn't get the money you got?

Jiha: Albany made the decision to cut your funding that they gave the city for the past three years.

[Crosstalk.] 

Question: Two parts, I want to see more money for parks, keeping parks clean. The money, from what I saw, correct me if I'm wrong, is $1.4 million allocated to the Sanitation Department. Will you plan to allocate more money for the Parks Department when you negotiate this budget with the council. I know that we reported last year that, and prior to your administration, but within your administration, cuts to the Parks Department have continued each year, and there were significant funding cuts and capital improvement. 

My second question is, I believe Gothamist has reported about 988, the suicide hotline, is they're hearing layoffs, and they might even be able to have to shut down because of what they say were $10 million in cuts from the Health Department. Do you want to talk about whether that could be restored? I don’t know, I didn’t see it in the budget?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, we have to– the state should assist in it as well, and we're going to do our part. We have to better promote 988. When I move around and I ask people, if someone is dealing with a mental health issue, you know, who would you call? I'm still hearing people say 911. We have not done a good job of promoting it, and all of us should promote it. 

All of my City Council people have newsletters, my state assembly people, my senators, they have newsletters. Ask how many times have they included in their newsletters that there's this three number, 988. All of us have to be part of the game. This is what I keep saying over and over again. Being an elected official is not complaining about the mayor. It is actually finding solutions to problems, and so if we need to strengthen 988, then everyone must play the role in doing so, and we're going to see what we can do to better do it with DOHMH to make sure that people are using it, and we want to protect it as much as possible because it's an important new entity. You want to answer the first part of my question?

Jiha: Yeah, I believe they have like a $20 million contract with 988, and from what I understand, DOHMH believes that it's appropriate. It's appropriate at that level. 

[Crosstalk.]

Jiha: Well, we have, you and I keep going back and forth on the same question almost every budget release. The Park Department budget has gone up. Their headcount has gone up. So when people say they have budget cuts, I'm like, okay, what do you mean by budget cuts? Their budget is larger than ever. Their headcount is larger than ever. 

[Inaudible.] 

Jiha: No, I'm talking about the full-time jobs, okay? Yeah, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. We're talking about the PEG programs. This is what you're referring to?

Question: Yeah, we're referring to these PEGs that cut significant amount of money from the Parks Department [inaudible].

Jiha: We have not restored. We had a PEG program of $7.2 billion throughout the city. So we have not restored $7.2 billion of PEG programs for all the agencies. Every agency would complain that they need resources. That particular program that you remove, even though we add more resources to your budget, the fact that you didn't give me that particular program, it's a cut to me. So the question is, how do you manage your resources? You have more resources, more employees. The question is, how do you manage them to do exactly the work that they're supposed to be doing?

Mayor Adams: And again, largest budget ever, largest ever. And I encourage everyone to go see Drop Dead New York City, the Beame years, you know, how he had to do layoffs. He had to raise taxes. He had to do all sorts of things. We have not raised any taxes. We have not laid off any employees. And we have minimized the impact of services. And independent bond raters. I say this every budget. Not the guys that are running around here yelling and screaming, but people who have knowledge about how well cities are managed. Independent bond raters increased our bonds, doubled down on it. 

This guy has managed us through COVID, through asylum seekers and brought back all of our jobs, broke the record 11 years in a row. Small businesses are here. Second largest tourism is here, brought down crime. We're managing the city. You know, I don't know. What do we, what do you and I have to do? 

What was the next one? High school, Craig. I'm really curious about this answer. 

Question: [Inaudible.] This is probably the first part for Jacques. The questions over the reserve, obviously, so you feel like you have enough reserve. But I guess looking at your conservative, typically, that would mean you'd save more. What would you conservatively estimate if there were a future recession? What is on the books of your, like, I guess, worst case scenario that you're preparing for? 

And then part of the book, the dockets that you put out today, the documents you put out, noting that, however, initial indications, the demand for travel to the city has diminished. Talking about the tourism levels and the hotel occupancy. It notes at the end of it saying global tensions could change this projection. I think it's referencing tariffs and kind of like the federal level. 

Now, has there been any conversations for you at the White House to kind of maybe tamp down on that or reach out and say, like, “President Trump, hey, these things could be hurting us in the future.” Because obviously you've touted how New York City's back, tourism is up. But it seems like from the initial few months of 2025, you're saying it's not.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. And we had the second largest tourism, I understand, of 64 million last year. And I don't know if many people realize when we hit COVID, we went through a nail dive and we still haven't recovered our Chinese and other Asian tourists in the city. So there's a lot of room for growth. We hit a bump. Things normalize and stabilize. And I think that after you saw the conversation around tariffs and others, there was a bump. We're going to normalize and stabilize. 

This is still the hottest ticket on the globe. New York City, as long as we keep it safe, as long as we use New York City tourism to encourage people to come here, we're going to bounce back. We will bounce back. Broadway is up and live. We have a very impressive domestic tourism industry that's coming. That's what kept us, sustained us during COVID. And we'll bounce back. We're going to be top in tourism again this year. Trust me.

Question: [Inaudible.] You said you finally you called out the Biden administration. You're calling up the state now for not giving the one billion dollars. Has there been any conversation– 

Mayor Adams: No, no, no.

Question: The question of what your doomsday scenario for recession. So what is your– what would you think of recession or these tariffs could cost the city?

Jiha: We want different scenarios, but we're not looking at doomsday. Currently, we're looking at a slowdown in the economy. That is our forecast. Our forecast has not taken into account any recession. But we want scenarios where we could see impact once between eight to ten billion dollars over the next two, three years. So it depends on the depth of the recession, how long the recession lasts. But again, we're not looking at a doomsday scenario at this point in time.

First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro: We're not expecting, no one is expecting that scenario. Some people, the pessimists, political opportunists, they see the glasses half empty. They are predicting the worst for New York City. We see the glass as half full coming off a record revenue year where hundreds of millions were able to be rolled over into this year. And the economy, the local economy, is still very strong. 

We root for New York. We see a bright future for New York. We see an administration, a mayor who is better positioned to deal with the issues that will arise in Washington than probably anyone in the country. And I will just say this. I've heard some talk, at least one prominent city councilmember, who suggested maybe we shouldn't have the reserves we have because maybe Washington or Albany will think we have more money in the bank. 

We have the largest record reserves in city history, $8.5 billion, $2 billion of it in a rainy day fund. We are best positioned to deal with any contingency that comes up in Washington, and we are best positioned to address with Washington those issues going forward. So to even ask the question about a doomsday scenario is to be with those pessimists and political opportunists who don't bet on New York, who are just saying the sky is falling. It isn't falling. 

We are in a great position this year, having come off the strongest revenue year in our history, having in the first quarter of this year also done extremely well in revenue. We are doing really well, and this budget is not about those kinds of scenarios. This budget is about investing in our future, investing in our public safety, investing in affordable housing, investing in economic opportunity, investing in our kids' futures. That's what it's all about, and I could not be more proud to have joined this administration in time to help this mayor produce that investment in our future.

Mayor Adams: And mind you, I'm glad you said that. Mind you, this is what everyone was calling for. All those people now that's telling us to put more money in the reserve and not invest in children, not invest in infrastructure, not invest in cultural institutions, not invest in public safety. Now they're talking about, you know, don't invest in these things. That's just going to show you the hypocrisy of it, and as we look, as the F.D.M. stated, as we look towards the future. An indicator of the past is a reflection of the future. 

We have shown you our ability to manage during crises. Not one crisis, COVID, two crises, 240,000 migrants and asylum seekers, public safety crisis, jobs hemorrhaging crisis. I mean, what more does Jacques have to do over in OMB before we realize we know what we're doing? We know what we're doing, and not only do I say it, independent bond raters say this administration knows what they are doing. 

Question: Hey, mayor. Harrison High School in Westchester. Do you think, though, the city has a responsibility to, you know, maybe just look down the road and say there are– people are talking about the possibility of a recession? Do you feel a responsibility to be prepared if that comes? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, without a doubt. $8.5 billion, the largest reserve in the history of the city. That's responsible management. At the same time, that recession cannot take away investments in our children's future. Cannot take away in housing. It cannot take away in public safety. If we sit back and just have a doomsday scenario that, “Hey, recession is coming. Recession is coming. So we're not going to deal with these issues that people are facing right now.” Then that would be irresponsible of us. 

We will deal with the recession. We will deal– if it comes, we will deal with whatever comes. We have an excellent ability of shifting and addressing the crises that are in front of us. That is our skill set. That's our hallmark. I don't know what other administration has that ability to be able to shift as well as we have been able to shift. 

I think about Camille, my chief of staff, and how she had to shift during COVID, shift during migrants and asylum seekers, shift during public safety issues. This is what we do. You know, we are able to manage cities during crises. And all of these guys, when I finish in five years, they're going to go off to run some major cities somewhere. All of them, you know, because they're the best at what we do on every front. So we got this. I can't, you know, this is the best budget ever, and we got this.

Question: Hi. I went to military school [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Love it. 

Question: I got three questions, right? The first one is that I know you've talked a lot about the reserves and all. But, you know, as a percentage of the total budget, which is kind of the measuring budget as [inaudible] used to judge a city's fiscal health during the past years. So my question is, what metrics are you using to call this the best budget ever? 

My second question is, does it include any money for child care vouchers that you have this kind of conflict with the state? And, you know, why are you putting on more money with reserves with Washington targeting sanctuary cities?

Mayor Adams: What? I'm sorry, why did we put it? The last part?

Question: More money in the reserves with Washington targeting sanctuary cities.

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, there's still some legal issues around the sanctuary city position of Washington, D.C. There's still some legal issues. And so we've got to see the outcome of that. And, you know, we're not going to– we're going to be smart. And that's why we have our strong reserves. We're going to be smart on, as things shift and change, if the courts rule, we're going to have to adjust to those rules. 

And we have been briefed by the court counsel and our legal team. Allison was behind me. They have been briefing us and we're doing scenario planning to be prepared for what's come. These are all uncharted waters and we have to be prepared for them as they come. So we believe our reserves at the record level is the right reserve that we can have.

Question: Well what metrics are you using because, you know, experts are saying it's supposed to be a percentage of the total budget?

Jiha: With an absolute term, this is the highest level. Okay, an absolute term relative to tax revenues. That's what you're talking about here. It's about the second or third. But it's very, it's like very small difference. But in absolute terms, this is the highest level. $8.5 billion.

Question: And the childcare vouchers?

Mayor Adams: We're still going to fight. We believe that this was a state program. We were encouraged to enroll as many students as possible. We communicated with Albany the importance of this. So whoever is saying that this is a last minute request is wrong. We're doing our job in our role. This was their project. They funded it. And to now say, “Okay, we don't want to fund it anymore” is wrong. 

But you know what? We should not be the only ones to say that. And I hope that you will ask all of the electors that represent the City of New York that have been standing front and center, critiquing what's happening out of Washington. They need to critique what's happening in Albany. 

Deputy Mayor Tiffany Raspberry, Intergovernmental Affairs: John Dewey High School, Brooklyn, New York. And so, as you all know, you saw last week the governor made an announcement about the budget, but it's not complete and we're still negotiating with the state. We're still in constant conversations every day. And so we're going to advocate for New Yorkers until the ink is dried on those bills.

Mayor Adams: Well said, well said.

Question: Just a couple of questions, one micro, one macro. One, could you, comparing this year and the coming fiscal year, July 1, to what you had predicted several years ago would be the total asylum seeker cost, that $12 billion figure you had used a few years ago. Can you say what is the total spend now at this point? And how is that different for both Fiscal Year 2025, the projected back then, versus now and for Fiscal Year 26? 

And then my second question is, just reading through the budget documents that you've released, the city budget officials who wrote them are describing the current financial situation that we're dealing with, the environment from Washington and the state, in a variety of ways. They use bedlam in one paragraph, talking about the uncertainty, the drop in the S&P. 

Can you say what words come to your mind when you think about budgeting in this kind of scenario with an arguably man-made stagflationary economy, tariffs that you don't know what they're going to be, possible downturn on Wall Street, which has voided the city's tax revenue? What's it like for you to deal with those headwinds?

Mayor Adams: What high school?

Question: White Station High School in Memphis, Tennessee.

Jiha: Regarding the asylum seekers, it's a moving number. As of yesterday, I would say it's about $7 billion. May I say $7.5 billion, but every month we add about $200 a week because we spend about $200 million a month. As of last month, it's about $7.7 billion. For Fiscal Year ‘25, I believe it's $3.4 billion. For Fiscal Year ‘26, it's about $1.45 billion. We're expecting a drop from the $200 million a month we burn a month to about $100 million a month into the next fiscal year. Our forecast is by the end of Fiscal Year 2026, we'll have about 20,000 folks under our care. 

[Crosstalk.]

Question: [Inaudible] environment. I mean, what’s it like to budget?

Jiha: It’s a very uncertain environment. I mean, we all know it's very uncertain. We're dealing with uncertainties, and everyone likes to have some stability to know exactly what's going to be the end game. But right now, we're in the midst of a lot of policies, and the policies keep shifting. So until we know for sure where we're heading, it makes it extremely difficult to plan.

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: What I was just going to say is the original $12 billion, we saved $5 billion over three fiscal years, and that's because we brought down the population by 83 percent. From 235,000 asylum seekers, we're down to 39,000 and change right now. And that's because of policies that D.M. Camille and D.M. Anne, when she was here, put into place, and so it brought down the estimate. 

Question: So $12 billion came down to $5 billion–

[Crosstalk.]

Deputy Mayor Levy: Yeah, and $7.7 billion, it'll probably be by the end around $8 billion. But that's all savings that they put in because we brought down the number.

Mayor Adams: Right, we brought down the population with the 30 and 60 day program. We encourage people to get work status. We advocated in Washington, D.C., to make sure that we gave temporary protective status. We did a host of policies. Instead of listening to the naysayers that said people's 200,000 should stay in our care forever, they pushed back on it. They said we were inhumane for telling people you got 30 to 60 days. We see a securing of our borders, so we're not seeing the flow as we saw before. 

If we would have remained stagnant or listened to others, we would have been dealing with a 200 or maybe even a 300,000 population at taxpayers' expense. But we made the right decisions. We did the right things for migrants and asylum seekers. And we did the right things for New Yorkers. Very successful. And when they do my documentary in six years, they're going to see how successful I was in handling this crisis. Nick? 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Alright. You got that Bronx swagger, man.

Question: Can you give a dollar figure for how many new investments this budget has for ‘26, for the next fiscal year? And also just in terms of these slowing tax revenues, you know, the 8 percent down to 1 percent, how is that reflected in the budget? Are there investments you would have made had this revenue stayed at 8 percent that now you have to omit from this?

Jiha: I believe the new needs for ‘26 are at 1.3, almost $1.3 billion that we have in terms of new needs. Again, as I said, the way we budget, we try to be as conservative as we can. So, therefore, we're not anticipating growth. When people said, “Okay, aren't you a little not careful not to take into account some slowdown?” Embedded in our forecast is a slowdown in growth. 

We're moving from 8 percent growth to 1 percent growth. So, there's nothing crazy here that we're projecting 3, 4, 5 percent to spend money. That's not what we're doing in this plan. We try to be as careful as we can be, as smart as we can be in terms of decisions that we make. Mayor makes a critical decision, upstream investment. This is, he's been saying for the past four years that I've been working with him. So, what we did is education, criminal justice reform. We found all of those things that are critical in terms of trying to make sure that we keep the upstream investment going.

Question: My name is Danielle. I write for the Baysider. Obviously, I go to Bayside High School. It would be awkward if I didn't. So, coming from a student perspective, I was curious. Is the talked about ban on cell phones in high schools. Is that anywhere reflected in the budget or how is there going to be an impact?

Mayor Adams: So, the governor is enacting the ban. It's still as D.M. Raspberry stated. It's still in negotiation. We don't know the final proposal. But they should be helping us fund it. So, it won't be an unfunded mandate. We support the ban. The biggest thing was, of course, as you know, cell phones are expensive. And we want to make sure that we look at all of the policies. If someone does not want to give their phone up, what do we do? We have to analyze and see how they're going to be secured during the day. And those are all the things we're looking at. 

Now, we have schools here in the city that they already have a cell phone ban. Independent schools. But now this is going to become a state mandated requirement. That's a different scenario. And we must make sure locally that we enact it. And I'm hoping they give us the power and authority locally to enact how that ban would be implemented. But we're still waiting to get the final analysis from the governor.

Question: So, Bayside High School has been a 100 percent CTE high school for the last 11 years. But we still don't have portfolio funding, which is the funding that's given to CTE schools. So, I was wondering if you guys have any idea why that is or if there's anything that you could do to help our school get this funding.

Mayor Adams: Now, what did you say? 100 percent what kind of school?

Question: CTE, Career Technical Education.

Mayor Adams: Okay, okay. And they don't have what type of funding?

Question: Portfolio funding.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Are you familiar? What does portfolio funding allow one to do? 

Question: So, essentially, CTE schools in New York City are entitled to funding for their CTE programs, which are specialized programs that only certain high schools have. And Bayside High School is a 100 percent CTE school, meaning that every student at our school is in a CTE program. You can't be in Bayside High School without being in one of these programs. 

For example, I'm in the Humanities and Nonprofit Management program here at Bayside. And Kaylee, who spoke earlier, was in a digital arts program. But these programs, obviously, they cost a lot of money in order to keep them up and running. And because Bayside is such a modern school, we have technology, like we have 3D printers and laser cutters for the engineering kids and such. 

But we are entitled to funding that we have not gotten, although we have been 100 percent CTE for 11 years at this point. Our PTA president has been advocating for us to get this funding, and I have a letter from him that we can definitely print out and I can give to you and any of your staff if you guys want to take a look at it, like the PTA president's contact information. He has been reaching out to politicians in Albany trying to get this passed. And we really, we could use this funding. So I wanted to try to advocate for that today.

First Deputy Mayor Mastro: We're going to talk to the chair.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much.

First Deputy Mayor Mastro: We are the City of Yes.

Mayor Adams: So let's look at that. CTE curriculum right now. And it is a great, great balance. Your numbers are impressive. 98 percent graduation rate. So we need to find out exactly what is the reason why that's not in place. 

So, D.M., would you connect with us and make sure we connect with the chancellor? And you're extremely articulate. And I think that you're going to have an excellent career in front of you. And be able to advocate on those things that are important. I appreciate you being here today. 

So Deputy Mayor Raspberry will connect you with the chancellor, and we'll get an answer. Because if it's impacting here, it has to be impacting other schools as well. Thank you very much.