Mayor Adams Releases Fiscal Year 2026 Preliminary Budget to Make New York City the Best Place to Raise a Family With Investments in Public Safety, Affordability, Education

January 16, 2025

Watch video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awxWfoz3Q4A

Budget Makes Sound Investments That Will Keep City Subways and Streets Safe, Bring Tax Relief to Working-Class New Yorkers, Beautify Parks, and Make Communities Safer

Investments Made Possible Through Adams Administration’s Ongoing Strong Fiscal Management, $3.4 Billion in Total Savings, Robust Economy

 Administration's Policies Have Set Stage for City’s Economic Growth and Helped Increase Tax Revenues
 

Asylum Seeker Reforecast Saves City $2.4 Billion Over Just Two Fiscal Years, Bringing Total Asylum Seeker Savings Over Three Fiscal Years to $5.2 Billion

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced the release of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Preliminary Budget to continue making New York City the best place to raise a family. The budget deepens the administration’s commitment to strong fiscal management, achieving savings and reducing asylum seeker costs, and makes key investments that protect critical programs and services, making the city safer, more affordable, and more livable for working-class New Yorkers. These achievements are also made possible due to the strength of the national and local economies.

“Strong fiscal management, combined with our investments in making this a safer, more affordable city, is allowing us to make New York City the best place to raise a family,” said Mayor Adams. “Our administration set the table for success by saving billions in taxpayer dollars, and now we are able to ensure the continuity of critical programs, as well as make the new, strategic investments that will move our city forward and improve quality of life for all New Yorkers without cutting services, laying off city employees, or raising taxes by a single penny. We are making major investments in affordable housing, addressing the severe mental health crises, keeping New Yorkers safe, providing our children with a world-class education and our families with affordable child care, developing major infrastructure projects and parks, investing in cultural institutions, and so much more. Our administration is working hard every day to deliver for working-class New Yorkers and make New York City the best place to raise a family.”

Strong Fiscal Management and Robust Economic Growth

The FY26 Preliminary Budget is $114.5 billion, with gaps of $4.2 billion in FY27, $5.4 billion in FY28, and $5.1 billion in FY29, which are all lower than at the November 2024 Financial Plan Update.
Robust growth in the local and national economies drove growth in city tax revenues, which has been revised up by $1.1 billion in FY25 and $2 billion in FY26, compared with the November 2024 Financial Plan Update. These gains are driven by growth in business taxes fueled by strong Wall Street performance in 2024 that is expected to continue in 2025 and 2026. The city's ongoing recovery and thriving economy — notably in job creation and tourism — reflects the administration’s strong fiscal management and laser-focus on policies that keep New York City a safe and clean place to live, work, and raise a family.

The Adams administration remains focused on saving taxpayer dollars. Total citywide savings in this plan are $2.7 billion over FY25 and FY26. Adding pension and labor-reserve savings brings the total to $3.4 billion in savings across the two years. Savings in this plan substantially offsets agency expense changes over FY25 and FY26.

The asylum seeker savings in this plan are based on a revised forecast of the asylum seeker census as a result of the city’s actions taken to help migrants take the next steps toward self-sufficiency, as well as border polices by the Biden-Harris administration that reduced the flow of migrant arrivals to New York City — successfully advocated for by the Adams administration. The combination of federal policy to regulate inflow, and city policy to help households exit shelter, has stabilized the emergency, generating the 28 straight weeks of sustained census declines to date. As the population in the city’s care declines, so do associated costs, which will reduce the asylum seeker budget by $1.1 billion in FY25 to nearly $3.3 billion and by $1.3 billion in FY26 to almost $2.7 billion. In total, New York City has spent more than $6.9 billion to feed, house, and care for nearly 230,000 asylum seekers since the spring of 2022.

Maintaining budget reserves as a safeguard against the unexpected is a critical part of the administration’s strong financial management strategy. The FY26 Preliminary Budget maintains a record level $8.5 billion in reserves, including $1.2 billion in the General Reserve, $5 billion in the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund, $250 million in the Capital Stabilization Reserve, and $2 billion in the Rainy-Day Fund.

Protecting Critical Programs and Funding Mandated Costs in the Current Fiscal Year

Thanks to the Adams administration’s strong fiscal management, revenue growth, and savings, the administration has invested almost $1.2 billion in FY25 to protect and support critical programs:

• Shelter re-estimate ($554 million)
• Rental assistance, including City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement ($325 million)
• New York City Public Schools’ nurses ($129 million)
• New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene school nurses ($96.2 million)
• Supportive housing ($64.2 million)

The administration also addressed more than $500 million in state-and-federally mandated program costs: 

• MTA contribution ($241 million)
• Increased state-mandated reimbursement costs for foster parents, adoptive parents, and kinship guardians ($138.8 million)
• Charter schools ($87 million)
• Early intervention ($55.1 million)

Helping More Families Find Homes in the Five Boroughs by Turning New York into a “City of Yes for Families”

To bring long-overdue change to New York City’s zoning code and build a little more housing in every neighborhood, the Adams administration introduced and worked with the New York City Council to pass “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing zoning proposal in city history. This historic legislation will create up to 80,000 new homes and invest $5 billion in housing and infrastructure over the next 15 years.

FY26 Investment Highlights

Keeping New Yorkers Safe

• Meeting Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City commitment to give homeless New Yorkers the help they need ($137 million in FY26):

• Adding 900 Save Haven beds and deepening 24/7/365 citywide street and subway outreach to help eliminate obstacles to shelter and encourage care.
• Launching the “Bridge to Home” pilot that provides homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness with psychiatric and substance abuse treatment and temporary housing.
• Adding 100 additional Runaway Homeless Youth shelter beds, bringing the total number of beds to 913.
• Launching a pilot program to connect soon-to-be parents applying for shelter with vouchers to help them find permanent housing and prevent homelessness before their child is born, moving new families into stable homes more quickly and preventing lifelong cycles of poverty and housing instability before they begin.

• Funding to complete infrastructure upgrades at the Woodhull Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit — a secure, clinical unit within a hospital that serves patients in custody who have serious health conditions and follows the jail-based therapeutic housing model that is scheduled to open in 2027 ($32 million).
• Increasing swim safety programming by adding more lifeguards and staff to offer free swim lessons to an additional 4,800 students, taking the total of New York City youth getting free lessons to nearly 18,000, announced as part of Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City Address ($5.5 million).
• Enhancing New York City Department of Correction (DOC) recruiting efforts with targeted advertising campaigns, in-person events, and more to help fill vacant positions ($5 million).
• Improving intersection safety by installing granite blocks or bike racks at hundreds of targeted locations, helping increase visibility and improve safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists ($3.9 million).
• Bolstering security and safety for staff and people in custody at DOC facilities with facility improvements ($2.5 million).
• Expanding bridge and tunnel repair capacity at the New York City Department of Transportation ($1.2 million).

Making New York City More Affordable

• Launching the ambitious “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” proposal to bring significant tax relief to working-class families by eliminating and cutting New York City personal income taxes and putting $63 million back in their pockets ($63 million).
• Funding for Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection program legal services to proactively engage tenants experiencing landlord harassment ($7.6 million).
• Funding for the Mayor's Office Public Engagement Unit (PEU) Home Support Unit, which works with landlords, real estate agents, and property managers to refer vacant apartments to the rental subsidy program ($2.2 million).
• Expanding capacity for the Fatherhood Initiative that helps fathers strengthen relationships with their children by promoting engagement, mentorship, and financial support ($2 million).
• Supporting new technology and tools to improve efficiency of the PEU Benefits Screening initiative and restoring funding for PEU’s summer CUNY internship “Benefits Corps” program ($1.3 million).
• Supporting Mayor Adams' 2023 State of the City moonshot goal of achieving 30,000 pre-apprenticeships for low-income participants by 2030 to prepare them for building trades apprenticeships as unionized ironworkers, plumbers, painters, and electricians ($1 million).

Investing in Education for New York City Children

• Continuing support for the Summer Rising academic and enrichment programming, which includes a savings restoration of $20 million for extended hours and Friday services to about 30,000 middle school participants ($100 million), as well as Learning to Work, which helps re-engage students who have fallen behind earn a high school diploma and prepare for college and careers ($31 million).
• Expanding the Pathways program to provide career readiness opportunities for students at New York City Public Schools ($17.5 million).
• Supporting programs that help young New Yorkers learn academic, work, and independent living skills, including Fair Future expansion, College Choice expansion, Career Choice/Workforce Ready, Girls JustUs expansion, Assertive Community Engagement & Success citywide expansion, all announced as part of Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City Address ($15 million).
• Opening an additional 11 schoolyards to be used as public playgrounds after school, on weekends, and during the summer as part of the Schoolyards to Playgrounds initiative, announced as part of Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City Address ($770,000).

Improving Quality of Life

• Expanding New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) second shift cleaning to 100 more hot spots at 64 parks, announced as part of Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City Address ($12.4 million).
• Funding for 54 programming and support staff, such as recreation specialists and lifeguards, at the new Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush that is set to open in fall 2025 ($4.8 million).
• Funding to create five additional Cultural Institutions Group members that will receive operating support from the city to help meet basic needs, announced as part of Mayor Adams’ 2025 State of the City Address ($3 million).
• Hiring 12 additional staff to visit and treat up to 4,000 tree beds per year to help reduce the rat population and address public service requests ($924,000).

Promoting Economic Development

• Funding for neighborhood development initiatives, including merchant organizing and Business Improvement District formation, that will support services like graffiti removal, streetscape beautification, and public arts projects throughout the city ($5.3 million).
• Creating a Financial Education Resource Hub that offers financial education workshops and trainings on key financial topics in schools ($4.35 million).
• Funding administrative support for monthly JobsNYC hiring halls, including identifying venues, liaising with the local community to identify interested employers, and advertising locally within communities experiencing high unemployment ($2 million).

Investing in City’s Largest-Ever 10-Year Capital Plan
The city will invest $170 billion over the next decade to improve infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, water and sewer facilities, libraries, and transportation systems in neighborhoods across the five boroughs. This is the largest 10-Year Capital Plan in city history. Through many of these investments, the city is also renewing its commitment to working-class New Yorkers by using project labor agreements and community hiring goals on capital construction projects. This includes:

• $36.5 billion for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the New York City Department of Sanitation
• $32.1 billion for transportation
• $24.5 billion for affordable housing
• $23.6 billion for schools
• $15.9 billion for DOC, courts, and the New York City Police Department
• $37.4 billion for other city services, including:

• $10 billion for NYC Parks
• $2.8 billion for cultural institutions and libraries

Key investments include:

• $3.18 billion to build the Newtown Creek combined Sewer Overflow Storage Tunnel
• $1 billion for housing in the New York City Department of Housing and Preservation Development ($825 million) and the New York City Housing Authority ($175 million)
• $612 million for repairs on the Queensboro Bridge lower roadway
• $279 million for the replacement of the Passerelle Bridge
• $168 million for Governors Island, including support for the New York Climate Exchange
• $60 million in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for building upgrades and open space improvements

###