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NYC Spends to Curb Rats, Ease Rent in Record $101 Billion Budget
(Bloomberg) -- New York Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council have agreed to a record $101.1 billion budget, with lawmakers boosting funding for rental assistance, public safety, parks, cultural institutions and immigrant families.
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Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced the deal on Friday during a press conference at City Hall.
“We are facing challenging times and from a budget perspective we are facing rough waters due to the loss of federal stimulus funding,” Speaker Adams said. “We are investing in young people, our communities, those underserved by our government for too long and all New Yorkers.”
The mayor said he and the council also agreed to invest in cleaning up city public spaces, including improvements to community gardens, graffiti removal and the addition of “rat-resistant” litter baskets. “No one wants dirty streets,” he said.
“Let’s be clear: I hate rats,” he said.
The budget, $1.4 billion more than the $99.7 billion plan Adams proposed in April, comes as the mayor’s approval rating suffers from fears over crime and discontent over quality-of-life issues, homelessness and rising rents. Only 29% of New Yorkers rate Adams positively after his first six months in office and 70% say they feel less safe than before the pandemic, according to a Spectrum News NY1/Siena College poll.
The agreement includes 90% of the priorities outlined in the council’s response to the mayor’s executive budget, Speaker Adams said. It invests $10 million in childcare for undocumented families, and includes the speaker’s initiative to provide $100,000 for each of the city’s 51 council members to invest in the safety of their communities.
“When the council stated the additional things they wanted in the budget... I said that sounds like me. These are things we advocated for,” the mayor said. “We were so much aligned that people want to spend so much energy on where we’re not aligned. That’s why we had this early handshake.”
Though New York City is benefiting from stronger-than-expected personal income-tax collections, rebounding tourism and rising residential real estate values, its recovery has been uneven. The mayor said the budget “promotes an equitable recovery for New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs.”
To cushion economic risks, the biggest US metropolis will salt away an additional $1.5 billion into city reserves. City Comptroller Brad Lander had recommended putting an additional $1.8 billion into reserves, though he applauded the “substantial amount” deposited and suggested a more formal mechanism for ensuring contributions going forward.
The city will have reserves of $8.3 billion. There is now $1.9 billion in the rainy-day fund, $4.5 billion in the Retiree Health Benefits Trust, and $1.6 billion in the general reserve, as well as $250 million in a capital stabilization reserve.
Separately, Adams said, the city has added $3 billion to a labor reserve in anticipation of negotiating contract agreements with the city’s workforce.
(Updates with focus on cleaning up public spaces)
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