Transcript: 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

Mayor Eric Adams: My fellow New Yorkers, this year marks a historic occasion, our city's 400th anniversary. For four centuries, we have faced our share of challenges, but one thing has remained constant. New York City has always been a place of hope, a destination for people from all over the world striving for a better future. One in which they can get ahead and finally achieve the American dream. Our administration proudly supports that tradition by delivering every day and everywhere for working class New Yorkers. 

As we make New York City the best place to raise a family, we have driven crime down by seizing nearly 20,000 illegal guns, removed 80,000 ghost cars and other illegal vehicles off our streets and shut down more than 1,300 unlicensed cannabis stores. We have stimulated the creation of a record number of jobs and new small businesses and put billions of dollars back into the pockets of working class New Yorkers. 

Thanks to our efforts, New York City's economy is booming and we continue to deliver a safer and more affordable city. None of this would be possible without our strong, forward-thinking fiscal management and our strategic investments. Strong fiscal management is a touchstone of this administration and it is key to New York City's success and long-term prosperity. The steps we took to achieve savings combined with revenues from a robust economy enable us to balance fiscal years 2025 and 2026 budgets. 

Because we set the table for success, we were able to ensure the continuity of critical programs as well as make strategic new investments in public safety, affordability and quality of life that benefit working class New Yorkers. 

Since 2022, New York City has spent more than $6.9 billion to care for nearly 230,000 asylum seekers. The proactive steps taken by our administration to put asylum seekers on the path to self-sufficiency together with changes in federal border policies that we vigorously advocated for contribute to a reduction in the number of migrants in our care. These measures successfully reduced the number of asylum seekers in our care from a high of 69,000 in January 2024 to under 50,000 today. Our two-step approach generated savings of $2.4 billion, $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2025 and $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2026. We were able to balance the fiscal year 2026 budget due to the savings we achieved as well as the strength of our national and local economies. 

While national economic indicators are generally positive, we expect the nation's strong economic growth to slow from 2.7 percent in 2024 to 2 percent in 2025. Corporate profits are at record levels, up over 50 percent since 2019. Wall Street profits will continue to rise in 2024 and 2025, and the S&P index soared to a record high in December. Inflation is slowing nationwide, and we expect inflation in our region to dip below the national rate by the middle of 2025. 

However, though the U.S. labor markets continue to expand, the pace of growth is slowing. Our city's economy is booming thanks to the steps we have taken to make our city safer, cleaner, and more affordable. The job market continues to expand, and the city is gaining jobs at a faster pace than the state or country. Unemployment has dropped in all demographics across groups across the five boroughs. Almost 350,000 jobs have been created under our administration, outpacing 46 states combined over the same period. We also achieved a high of 4.8 million private and public sector jobs. That is more total jobs than ever before in our city's history. 

Our city welcomed more than 64 million tourists in 2024, which is the second-highest number in our city's history, and we expect tourism to surpass pre-pandemic levels this year. Despite a strong economy, we remain cautious. The real estate market is slowing since interest rates remain high, and housing market activity is subdued. But we do anticipate a slow recovery as interest rates decrease. 

While commercial office vacancies remain stubbornly high, we project they have peaked this year. In addition, we cannot anticipate the impacts of the incoming federal administration on our city. We do not know how new trade, immigration, regulatory, fiscal, or grant funding policies will affect New Yorkers. So we must remain vigilant and carefully monitor the effects of the new administration's actions. 

Our strong fiscal management and the steps we have taken to keep New York City safe, affordable, and clean have resulted in strong economic growth and stability for our city's budget. We will remain a steady course and continue our responsible approach so that we can build on the services, programs, and initiatives that New Yorkers need and deserve. 

The fiscal year preliminary budget is balanced at $114.5 billion. We closed a $5.5 billion fiscal year budget gap with a combination of savings and new revenue. This includes making a $2.3 billion prepayment from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26, which we are able to achieve thanks to careful management of the city resources. We also reduced out-year gaps below their November 2024 financial plan levels to $4.2 billion in fiscal year 27 and $5.4 billion in fiscal year 28 and $5.1 billion in fiscal year 29. This is the second consecutive plan where we have driven budget gaps downward. 

We revised our tax revenues upward compared to the 2024 November financial plan update. Gains were driven by growth in business taxes that were fueled by strong Wall Street performances, which we expect to continue in 2025 and 2026. The city's thriving economy reflects our administration's focus on policies that make New York City a great place to live, work, and raise a family. 

However, our city's single largest source of revenue, property tax, remains subdued throughout the plan. To be clear, despite claims that some might make, our forecasts are on par with or even more optimistic than most independent monitors. As you can see on the chart, this includes forecasts made by the City Council, the Independent Budget Office, and the city comptroller. 

We achieved $2.7 billion in citywide savings over two fiscal years without cutting services, laying off hard-working city employees, or raising taxes by a single penny. In addition, we reduced pension costs by just over $270 million and the labor reserve by $400 million over the two years. Also, as I discussed earlier, our proactive steps and strong fiscal management drove savings of $2.4 billion on asylum seeker care. 

Thanks to the savings we achieved and revenue growth, we have been able to apply almost $1.2 billion to protect critical services that benefit our working-class families and their children. These include more than $550 million to meet the increasing costs of sheltering the homeless population, and additional $325 million in CityFHEPS Rental Assistance, the city's primary rental assistance program to help working-class New Yorkers find and keep housing. A total of more than $200 million to make sure every public school has a nurse in the building, and more than $64 million for affordable housing with supported services in place for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. 

We also addressed over $500 million of state and federally mandated program costs, including $241 million in additional funds to cover fiscal year 25 payments to the MTA, almost $139 million for increased state-mandated reimbursement costs for foster parents, adoptive parents, and kinship guardians, $87 million in tuition for charter school students, and more than $55 million on early intervention programs to provide support and services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities. Our support of these critical programs reflects our commitment to working-class New Yorkers and their families. 

Maintaining budget reserves as a safeguard against the unexpected is a critical part of our administration's responsible financial management. And that is why our reserves are at a record high for our city. Our general reserves are over $1 billion. Our Rainy Day Fund is at $2 billion. Retiree Health Benefits Trust is at $5 billion. And our Capital Stabilization Reserve is at $250 million. 

Our fiscal year 26 investments focus on key areas that are vital to making New York City the best place to live, work, and raise a family. We continue our commitment to keeping communities safe, making New York City more affordable, improving the quality of life for New Yorkers, investing in our children's education, and boasting our city's economic recovery. Let's start with our North Star. 

From upstream solutions in education, career development, and housing, to violence interrupters, removing illegal guns, and increased police presence on our streets and in our subway, our administration has left no stone unturned when it comes to keeping all New Yorkers safe. As I discussed in last week's State of the City Address, we are launching an ambitious multi-year approach to address homelessness and help those suffering from serious mental illness move off our streets and subways and into housing. Our fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget commits $137 million to that effort. This includes funding for 900 new safe haven beds that have proven highly effective at transitioning New Yorkers into permanent housing. 

We are also increasing outreach to individuals suffering from serious mental illness in all five boroughs, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so that they can receive the care they need and transition off the streets. We are launching an innovative new program, Bridge to Home, that provides New Yorkers suffering from serious mental illness with psychiatric and substance abuse treatment and help to secure permanent housing. And we are adding 100 additional shelter beds for runaway homeless youth to bring the total number to 913. 

We have also announced a new goal. No child should ever be born into our shelter system. So we are launching a pilot program to help expecting families find housing. Together, it is important that these new investments will help our city tackle homelessness by connecting unsheltered New Yorkers, with serious mental illness, to care and housing and keeping families out of shelter. 

We are making upstream investments for New Yorkers who need them. Like improving the infrastructure at the Woodhall Outpost Unit, a secure clinical facility to treat patients in custody that follows the jail-based therapeutic model. We are enhancing Department of Corrections recruiting efforts with targeted advertising campaigns and in-person events so that we can fill vacant positions. We are bolstering security for staff and detainees by making improvements at Department of Corrections facilities. 

We are also keeping New Yorkers safe on our streets and in our waters by improving road safety at hundreds of targeted traffic intersections and adding more lifeguards to our rosters so we can deliver swim lessons to more of our young people. Making New York City more affordable is key to making it a great place to live, work and raise a family. I know this from my personal experience. My mother worked multiple jobs just to be able to make ends meet. And our administration is unwavering in its commitment to lift up working-class New Yorkers and make sure that families like mine can get ahead. That is why we created, fought for and passed the historic City of Yes for Housing Opportunity Plan, the most pro-housing proposal in New York City's history. 

Our $5 billion investment in this generational plan will create 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years and ensure that every New Yorker has a roof over their heads, turning New York City into a City of Yes for families. And because we know that extra money in your pocket can make all the difference when it comes to essential expenses like food, rent and school supplies, we launched our ambitious Axe the Tax for the Working Class, which puts an average of $350 [] into the pockets of eligible families, helping 582,000 New Yorkers. 

We're calling on Albany to include our proposal in the fiscal year 2026 state budget. We're investing in legal services who proactively engage tenants who are being harassed by their landlords. We're also investing in our home support unit, which helps New Yorkers secure vacant apartments through rental subsidy programs. And because becoming a parent is a joyous occasion, we want to make sure that families who are expanding capacity for the Fatherhood Initiative to be able to participate in it. This will help fathers strengthen relationships with their children. 

We're also maintaining funding for monthly jobs, NYC hiring halls and communities experiencing high unemployment and supporting an initiative that works with low-income New Yorkers to prepare them for apprenticeships in the building trades. A roof over your head, a job, extra money in your pocket, help when you become a new parent. All these things will make raising a family in New York City easier. And we cannot forget quality of life. 

The great quality of life is priceless and benefits all New Yorkers. We want everyone to enjoy clean and welcoming parks, vibrant cultural institutions and rec centers and healthy tree-lined neighborhoods. That is why we are introducing a second cleaning shift at more than 100 hotspots over 64 parks, hiring additional staff to tend to approximately 4,000 tree beds across the five boroughs to reduce the rat population and keep our urban forests healthy. And opening additional schoolyards to the public after school on weekends and during the summer to put 20,000 more New Yorkers within a 10-minute walk of a park. 

We are also adding five new members to our cultural institutions group so that they can receive operating support from the city. Adding 54 staff to the new Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center at East Flatbush to help underserved neighbors make the best use of this state-of-the-art facility. And we are supporting neighborhood development initiatives throughout the city to encourage graffiti removal, streetscape, beautification and public art projects. 

Even as we invest in quality of life, we must also remember our young people whose education happens in and out of school 365 days of the year. So we continue to support our in-demand Summer Rising Program and have been able to restore extended hours and Friday programming for about 30,000 middle schoolers. We also extended support for our Learning to Work Program, which helps students who have fallen behind earn a high school diploma and prepare for college and their careers. And we are expanding our Pathways Program to provide additional career readiness opportunities to students at New York City public schools. 

In addition, we are funding multiple programs that help young New Yorkers learn, work and develop independent living skills, including financial education that will be critical to ensuring young New Yorkers can invest in their futures. 

Over the next decade, we will invest $170 billion to make our city safer, more affordable and the best place to raise a family. We will improve infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, water and sewer facilities, libraries and transportation systems across the five boroughs. The plan includes $36.5 billion for the environment and sanitation, over $32 billion for transportation, $24.5 billion for affordable housing, close to $24 billion for schools, almost $16 billion for the Department of Corrections and NYPD, and more than $37 billion for other city services, including parks and recreation and our cultural institutions and libraries. 

Our administration fiscal year 2026 budget reflects our priorities, maintaining strong fiscal responsibility so that we can protect critical programs, fund generational housing, tackle homelessness and serious mental health, invest in our children's education and improve the quality of life for New Yorkers. Our administration is working hard every day and everywhere to deliver for working class New Yorkers and make New York City the best place to raise a family. Thank you.

[BUDGET Q&A BEGINS.]

Mayor Adams: Good afternoon. We want to just get to the questions. But this morning, as Jacques and I were sitting down reflecting, we are where we are right now with a balanced budget proposal, no cuts being proposed because at the beginning of this administration, when we came into office, we met with business leaders and asked, what do we need to turn around our economy coming out of COVID? What must we do to give them the confidence to invest in our city again? And they told us: public safety, good schools, our transportation system, clean the streets, deal with the encampment issues that we were facing. And we doubled down on all those things. And because of that, that confidence was built. 

Our economy is booming. Tourism is back. And we are watching this city outpace the state and the nation in job creation. We just put our nose to the ground and did the job that they asked for. And we're seeing the results for that. So we're open to a few questions that will talk about the fiscal year 26 budget.

Question:  I have two questions for you. The mental health plan, you were talking about it in today's budget. Yesterday it was $650 million. I know you're only funding it to $137 million for this year. I wanted to know what exactly does that cover of the mental health plan you announced yesterday. 

And then you mentioned savings when it came to the migrant crisis. I saw in your savings plan that it was a change in the forecast. I wanted to know why you're categorizing it, a change in calculation, as a savings versus you guys changing the forecast.

Mayor Adams: Well, the savings is because of the job that Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack and Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom was able to put in place. We committed to bringing down the cost of the migrants and asylum seekers, which we had a total of $6.9 billion. I keep saying that number over and over again because it should resonate. And we knew we had to change how we were managing the crisis. We could not keep people permanently in our care. And those are savings. It is saving taxpayers real dollars. 

We were committed from the federal government a little over $2 million. I think they gave us a total of $125 million that we collected so far. So those are savings for taxpayers and taxpayers should realize the work we have done to drop the population out of our care and put people in the next step of their journey. Now they are contributing to society and not costing taxpayers dollars. You want to answer the first part?

Jacques Jiha, Director, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget: Yeah, basically, we budgeted for that much money. Okay, so if you budget for $4 billion and you end up spending $3 billion, you're saving $1 billion. So it wasn't a budget to begin with, okay, those $2.4 billion.

Question: Your budget calls for adding an additional $554 million in this fiscal year for homeless shelter services. What changes on the ground necessitate that reestimate?

Mayor Adams: This is something that the team– that we've been looking for. You're going to see that $500 and something million as well as $400 million in—

[Crosstalk.] 

Mayor Adams: No, I'm talking about the additional amount that we're going to have to spend for rent subsidies. Those are the two big hits that we are seeing. 

We are seeing an increase in the shelter population, not migrants and asylum seekers, but other parts of the country. There's a substantial number of people from other parts of the country are coming to New York City now. We don't know if it's because of the disasters in their areas or there was so much conversation in the universe about the right to shelter that everyone is coming to New York. But it is almost $900 billion in a combination of those two things that are impacting our city. 

Question: It was $325 million. What is the other portion? 

Mayor Adams: No, the shelter allocation is $540 million?

Jiha: Yes, $554 million.

Mayor Adams: Yes, $554 million. And then an additional roughly $400 million in emergency shelter.

Question: Can you talk more about public safety? Can you talk a little bit more about how much you're putting into public safety, specifically for subways and streets and officers?

Mayor Adams: Well, what I shared with the governor and the police commissioner is that where we are losing, we're losing the battle of perception. That's what we're losing. It is challenging for New Yorkers when I go to senior centers and other places and I ask everyone, raise your hand if you think we have 500 crimes on our subway system a day. It's amazing how many people raise their hands. 

We have an average of six felonies a day with 4.6 million rioters. We lost the battle of perception. We have driven down homicides, shootings, some of the major crime categories. Our subway systems numbers are, you know, we want to get rid of those six felonies. But the reality is we're not dealing with a subway system that's out of control. We have cases that have basically overshadowed our success. And so part of what we must do is give people the feeling of safety. And there's no better way to do it than the omnipresence of that blue uniform, partnering with the Governor's Office and some of the new initiatives that Commissioner Tisch is about to roll out is going to address the omnipresence of the uniform. 

And what Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom has been saying and doing for the longest between SCOUT and PATH, we have to get people with severe mental health illness off our system. It is adding to, number one, we're not treating them with the dignity that they deserve. And number two, it is adding to the perception of not being safe. So we are going to continue to drive down crime. But our goal is to deal with how people are feeling. That is the highlight. 

Having three people stabbed on our street just shook our feelings and added to the anxiety. Having someone shoot a CEO in our city, having someone shoved to the subway tracks. You see those images on social media. It shakes your confidence in your city. But when you look at the overall numbers, this Police Department has really stepped up over the years.

Question: Two questions. Why didn't you add anything to the reserves this year, this budget? And second question, the City of Yes commitments that you all made, where is that reflected in this plan for $1 million? Is that in your capital plan or an expense plan?

Mayor Adams: You're chomping at the bit. So let me just do the first part. You know, it kills me when people say, you know, why don't you add more to the reserve, add more to the reserve. The reserves are not there just to sit there and say, you know, wow, look how much money we have. We have a record amount of money in our reserve. Records. 8.5 billion in our reserve because of our fiscal management. But we have real issues that we must address. 

So I'm not going to sit within a record amount of reserve when we have to deal with mental health issues, public safety issues, affordability issues, housing issues. So that's the purpose of reserves, not just to have this sit there, but to say, how do you use it in a smart way to deal with any fiscal downturns? But at the same time, we have to deal with these real issues that are facing our city. 

All of you are talking about the mental health crises that we're facing. All of us are talking about more beds. We're talking about all these things that are important. So we have a record number of reserves. But we must deal with those real crises that we are facing. You want to deal with the City of Yes? 

First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer: Yes, mayor. Thank you for your question. And the resources to ensure that we can implement the historic City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal properly are both in the expense and in the capital budget. So as a reminder, we have about $2 billion over the course of the plan for infrastructure improvements. Think streets, think parks, think infrastructure like sewer systems. And then, of course, on the housing capital side, that's another billion dollars, approximately $825 for HPD and about $175 for NYCHA to ensure that we are we have the right capital commitments to not just finance affordable housing and make the types of improvements at NYCHA, but we're really strengthening neighborhoods across the city. 

On the expense side, you will see the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity investments reflected in additional staff for HPD, for the Department of Buildings, for city planning, for the Commission on Human Rights, and a few others. It also shows up in additional funding for programs to combat landlord harassment of tenants and in a few other major programmatic commitments. So we're really excited, not just at the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity has passed, but we are fully positioned now with these additional resources to make sure that it gets implemented speedily and properly.

Question: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, to circle back on Dana's question, you mentioned people coming from out of state and taking up space in the shelter system. How many individuals are we talking about fitting into that category or ballpark, at least? And with the funding that's being newly allocated for that, the $550 million, is that going to be used to actually expand existing shelters, or is it spent on something else? On one final point, how much is budgeted for NYPD overtime in FY26?

Mayor Adams: First, we're doing an analysis of exactly where people are coming from, and we're going to try to drill down on the reasons. We have witnessed in the Carolinas as well as what we're seeing in Los Angeles, as well as some of the tragedies we've witnessed in Florida, so we're not sure of what the reasons are. This is a great city, and people want to be here, but we're seeing an extraordinary number that we want to get a full understanding of. We don't have the answer to that question right now. 

With NYPD overtime, I think I can remember during the Koch years, people were asking Mayor Koch about NYPD overtime. There's always going to be questions about NYPD overtime. Who are we kidding? That is just the reality of running the city, and when you look at the fact we had 3,000 demonstrations, changes in demonstration rules. There were changes that we could no longer– we have to allow people to take the streets, we have to allow them to do a whole host of things, and it takes manpower to do that. And I was very clear on, my North Star, we're not going to see destruction of property, we're not going to see individuals being injured, we're going to allow the right to protest, but at the same time we were very clear, you're not going to disrupt the parades, you're not going to disrupt ball drops, you're not going to disrupt things we do in this city.

And then we moved a substantial number of officers in the subway in January when we had that uptick in subway crime, and we were smart to do it because we saw crime go in the right direction after that. So I'm going to use every dollar that's needed to keep this city safe. That's my North Star, and if we have to use overtime to do it, we're going to use overtime to do it. The city's going to be safe. There is no price you could put on safety. 

The commissioner's coming in, she's doing analysis to make sure officers who are in all of these details and task forces, that we're going to redeploy folks, officers in the right places. What we've done around ensuring that we were not having too many officers at parades and other initiatives, dropped those deployments properly, so we're going to monitor the overtime, but I'm unapologetic. Every dollar I need to keep New Yorkers safe, I'm going to spend to keep New Yorkers safe.

Question: How much is actually the budget? 

Mayor Adams: Do you have a budget, a number for that?

Jiha: Yes, it's about $900 million. 

[Crosstalk.] 

Jiha: That's more than that.

Question: Is there a commitment to stay on budget? The NYPD has kept going over budget on that. 

Mayor Adams: No, here's a commitment. The commitment is to keep New Yorkers safe. That is the commitment. And I want to say to New Yorkers, I am committed to keeping you safe. Let the number crunchers deal with the dollar amount. We're going to maximize taxpayers' dollars, but I am going to keep New Yorkers safe. The prerequisite to our prosperity, the prerequisite to our growth, the prerequisite to our tourism, the prerequisite to mothers allowing their children to go out to play in parks is that they want to be safe. And I'm going to use every item, dollar we need to keep them safe. I'm not like other people who call for just defunding the Police Department and now have a different belief about funding the Police Department. I'm going to keep New Yorkers safe.

Question: This is under the title of keeping New Yorkers fed. One of the sad things that came out of the U.S. Census Bureau was that New York State ranked with Louisiana and Mississippi in terms, and West Virginia, in terms of the highest rates of poverty in the country. 

We do know that Governor Hochul and yourself have been addressing the failure of the federal government to reauthorize the expanded child tax credit, which threw millions of children back into poverty. This is connected really to your federal exposure. And you did kind of gloss over you made reference to the fact that you don't know with the incoming Trump administration what they'll do with immigration and trade. But the thing they've been talking about, and maybe Jacques can give us some background on this, is going after food stamps, going after Medicaid. 

So it wouldn't be after you so much as New Yorkers. I know you care about it. So can you talk about your federal exposure? Like, I know you can't say what's going to happen, but Jacques, there's a big number coming from the federal government to keep New Yorkers whole, isn't there? 

Mayor Adams: We, you know, government is city, state, and federal. If you were to do an analysis of what we have done on the city level, when we say it over and over again, in our $30 billion money back in your pockets, we have looked under every nook and cranny, every rock to find how do we put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. 

Earned income tax credit. First time in 20 years we've seen the increase. Making sure we reduce the cost of child care from $55,000 a week to less than $5 a week. High-speed broadband for NYCHA, excusing medical debt to almost $2 billion, and excusing medical debt for New Yorkers— the number one cause of bankruptcy. Paying college tuition for  foster care children. We go on and on and on and on through the list. We're going to do our job. 

Now it's time for the other arms of government to join us. And so we have a congressional delegation. It is their job to come up with an agenda of how do we look at these things that's going to protect the city. That's their job to do. We're going to advocate. We're going to join them. We're going to travel to Washington and fight on behalf of New Yorkers, but every arm of government must do their job. That's why they're there. 

You know, I know my job here, and we're doing our job. And [we] showed a substantial [effort in] putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. And we had a great leader and minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader Senator Schumer, and the entire delegation, and congressional leaders Grace Meng, Congressman Espaillat, and Congresswoman Clarke are now head of, of their various caucuses. So we have a lot of power in Washington, and I think we have to utilize that power, but I'm going to make sure that I am not warring with the president. I'm working with the president. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: I had that back when I had to put on our police uniform and protect the children and families of the city. It's not going to stop because I'm the mayor and I wear a blue suit. I'm always having New Yorkers’ backs because I'm a New Yorker.

Question: So, you’ve touted these savings from the asylum seeker crisis, you're now rolling over into this next year's budget. So how are we getting at almost $2 billion more of a budget with all of this savings? 

What is back in here? Is this all the PEGs restored here with getting back to this budget? This is the first budget you haven't had cuts in, and we're adding $2 billion. So we're saving all this money as we get there. Building on the overtime, you said $900 million is budgeted at this point? It's about that. But we're way over that, and it looks like the budget's slightly down for the NYPD.

Jiha: We're trying to get… That's the reason why the mayor put out the directive basically so that we can begin to monitor what's going on. Our goal is to try to bring the NYPD back on track. Because, like the mayor said, we had about 3,000 protests in New York City last year. So these were unexpected, and they cost money. But our goal now is to try to bring them back on track.

Question: Do you mean on the $2 billion, the $2 billion more in budget, your [inaudible]  back into 2026? How are we getting $2 billion more when we're having savings in this cost of energy? Did you restore all the PEGs that have previously been cut?

Jiha: I'm trying to understand. Are you talking about the prepayment that we make in 2025 for 2026?

Question: We're talking right now, talking about how you've saved this money from the migrant crisis that you've saved. You had budgeted it for this current fiscal year. You're rolling it into next year. But you're also putting out a budget that's $2 billion more than last year's budget. So where is that money going? Are you restoring all the PEGs that have been previously cut?

Jiha: No, we have a number of initiatives and we have a number of cliffs that were unfunded. These are the things, like we just indicated to you earlier, we just added about $545 million for the shelters. We're adding about $325 million for rental assistance. So we have a number of programs where we have cliffs that we have to fund those programs. So that's where all these resources are going. Funding cliffs, funding underfunded programs, at the same time, funding the priorities of the mayor. All the priorities that were in the state of the [city] are all funded.

Mayor Adams: We can't, you know, what has often been lost is that we inherited an administration where we had real fiscal cliffs from COVID. Some of our youth programs, so many programs that we have fiscal cliffs. And thank God this team started doing those PEGs earlier. If we didn't do those pegs to save $7.2 billion, where would $6.9 billion come from that it cost us to do this? 

So because we started out early, before even knowing the migrant and asylum seekers were going to hit our city, we knew we had to find efficiencies in our agencies. And we returned last budget, I think, $340 something million back to those important initiatives that the City Council thought were important, we thought they were important. 

And now we got to pay for some of these issues that are important to all of us, like the mental health issue that many of you are writing about, like the housing issue, as many of these important issues, we have to pay for them. 

But I want to be very clear on this, because I hear us talk often about NYPD budget, and I cannot say it any clearer. Whatever it costs to keep us safe, we are going to spend. I want to be very clear on that. And I'm not apologizing for that. New Yorkers must be safe. And I go to these hospitals visiting people who are the victims of the crime, picking up the phone, talking to the mother of a 14-year-old who was stabbed while waiting at the bus stop? You know, I have to deal with these calls. I have to sit in hospitals. I have to go to the funerals. I have to hug loved ones. I know the trauma. You may write about it, but I live through it. I'm going to spend every penny I need to keep New Yorkers safe.

Question: You talked about that you're vigilant about changing, potential change in federal policy, cities' finances. I was wondering if you could talk about some of the programs that you're doing that would be vulnerable to federal funding cuts. And then my second question is, have all of the cuts to parks been restored in this budget?

Mayor Adams: First of all, I am not going to assume, and I'm not going to use hypotheticals. The new administration is going to list their priorities like every administration will do. Once we look at that, we'll make the right analysis, and we'll partner with our congressional delegation to have the right action plan. We're hoping there are things that's going to come in that we didn't get from the current administration. So we're looking forward to finding out what’s the proposal and what's the priorities of the incoming president. Jacques, you want to talk about the parks?

Jiha: Yeah. At the budget adoption last June, we not only restored the cuts to parks, but we also added resources to parks. And in this plan, we're adding another $12 million, for second shift, so that they can take care of parks. 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Jiha: From my perspective, yes.

Mayor Adams: I like that answer. Because it is your perspective. But your perspective, yes. And, you know, people, what we heard from people is that the parks were not clean enough. 

Commissioner Tisch did with the no-man's areas, no-man's zones, as she used to call them, where no one was cleaning, adding those shifts are important. And so we would love to get to the 1 percent that we were talking about, you know. 

But again, you know, mothers used to say, man makes plans and God laughs. No one thought we were going to have to spend $6.9 billion. And I'm going to keep saying that number over and over and over again so you can start realizing how much money the federal government did not give us. $6.9 billion. We could have put a billion in the parks if we were not putting it into a national humanitarian crisis. So, yes, you know, from your perspective, that is a great answer. 

Question: So, Comptroller Lander had an event a little bit after the election when he identified $8.5 billion. I think roughly that was like the sum total of federal aid to the city. But he suggested, said, was at risk under the incoming administration. 

I know you don't want to deal with hypotheticals, but would the city be able to cover, under the current financial plan, a hit of that size? I know the incoming president has suggested it will go after cities that have sanctuary policies, as New York City does. Or would you rule in the possibility of having to institute another peg if there are federal budget cuts?

Mayor Adams: We have to balance our budget by law. And when it comes down to fighting for New Yorkers, it doesn't matter to me who's in the White House. I don't know how many times Brad went to D.C. to say, stop making us pay for a national crisis. So if he could point out what may happen, why wasn't he standing up [for] what was happening? You cannot say, well, what may happen in the future. The comptroller lived through this city spending $6.9 billion. 

So he should have been going to D.C. in some of my ten trips, he should have been using his advocacy to stop what was happening to our city. So for him to start talking about what the incoming administration is doing, I first want to hear what he was doing under this administration that we lost $6.9 billion. 

And I'm not going to, I'm not going to assume anything. The plan is, our congressional delegation, with our partnership must advocate for any potential cut for New Yorkers and get more than those potential cuts. We should not have received $120-something million out of a $6.9 billion budget. 

Question: As you know, the Governor Hochul announcing today, cops will be on the subway overnight starting Monday. There's just some confusion on who exactly is paying for it. The state budget office said that the city might be paying $77 million of this. So, wondering if that's true, and, will the city be reimbursed for that $77 million? 

And then when we're talking about cop overtime here, as you know, cops are already doing a lot of overtime as it is. Are you guys looking at providing any sort of additional resources for officers? And what's your message to officers, you know, already working quite a few hours?

Mayor Adams: I'm glad you raised that because, they have been working long hours. And that's when I'm out, and I talk to the officers, they, you know, work-life balance means a lot to them. It's particularly the younger officers. Much of the officers, not like they are just creating overtime, just to be creating overtime. These officers want to go home. 

And especially in the Transit Bureau, many of them have been doing mandatory overtime. And they've been long hours, and, you know, they want to, just, you know, go home and spend some time with their families. And I thank them for taking the sacrifice to make our subway system as safe as it is. 

As I was sharing with the speaker earlier, these are large classes that are reaching the 20-year mark. We may lose a substantial number of officers. We're giving the police commissioner 1,200 more officers. We're going to have to look to give even more if need be. And we're going to be ready to do that to keep the manpower at the level that it deserves. 

And then we have to talk about the mental stability of our officers. You know, several officers who committed suicide last year. That's very alarming and concerning to all of us. Our goal is to give them the resources they need, give them the support that they need, and try to minimize the use of the overtime numbers, because we want to make sure we use the population we have to keep the city safe.

Question: I'm sorry, is the city paying for $77 million of the cop overtime when it comes to subways?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I think it's, you know, I've always felt that we need to ensure the omnipresence of the officers that nothing is more comforting than seeing that officer walk through the train car. 

And that's what the governor agrees on, the commissioner agrees on, Chief of Staff Varlack, she has been speaking with the Governor's Office, her and, and Deputy Mayor Raspberry have been communicating to work out the final analysis of the plan last night. 

The police commissioner and I sat down and spoke late into the evening about this plan because everyone is on the plan and we just got to work out the details of how it's going to be implemented, carried out, and paid for. 

Question: I want to ask you how you're doing because big picture, this seems like a pretty good budget, more revenue, less cuts, new ideas. Uh, you know, 18 months ago—

Mayor Adams: Tweet that. Tweet that. 

Question: 18 months ago you said that the crisis would destroy New York City. Is this like a mission accomplished kind of thing? And then, of course, you still have to negotiate this with the council. Every year it's a big fight. Are you anticipating more battles with the council this year? 

Mayor Adams: Well, any time you can do a budget and not have the C term, the cut term, it makes it easier. I think this is probably out of the number of budgets that we have put in front of the council. This probably was the shortest number of questions we received from the council and from Brad. 

I think when Brad asked us three questions, you know, and the first one was, you know, when is your birthday? You know? So, it's clear that we got here. I think that it's really underrated, how well of a fiscal manager I have been for this city. I don't think people realize that. You know, but when you, when you had to go through what this team has gone through and still move the city forward, you know, I want to compare another administration that has so many records of what we've accomplished from housing, to transition people into permanent housing from homelessness. How we managed this fiscal crisis is… people are going to be writing about this for a long time. 

We inherited fiscal cliffs, union contracts that were not settled. We inherited 220-something thousand migrants and asylum seekers. We inherited so many uncertainties. Economy, our jobs were turned around. We got 4.7 million jobs, over 300,000 under this administration, the largest number in the city's history. 

When you look at what we managed and how forward thinking we were, and now we're here, this year saying no cuts, and let's see how we continue to move the city forward. We built confidence in this city, and people are willing to come back to this city and invest in this city. I think the New York Post, Craig, wrote a story today about… we're going to pre-pandemic levels in our essential important business districts. Now our real estate is at a premium. We turned the city around. And so, that's why this was a good budget. Because we did a good job previously, to get here, to have a good budget. 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Mayor Adams: There's nothing wrong with good, healthy democracy debate. It's supposed to. That's the balance. I don't understand why people get concerned when the council must come and meet with us. Democracy is not frictionless. 

Democracy is hearing both groups come together and come to a middle ground. And so the fight is not because we want to tear down. The fight is because we both love the city. And when you love something, you're going to defend what you believe is right about it. And so we look forward to the conversation with the City Council. They may have some ideas. We may have to tweak some stuff. But one thing for sure, we will have a balanced budget in June.

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you talk more about your proposal of tax cuts for middle class families?

Mayor Adams: Yes. So important. Hundreds of thousands, I think a little over 500,000 New Yorkers will benefit from this. And, you know, we intellectualize these conversations. But just plain and simple, to that mother out there that's making $31,000 a year, she has a baby, a child. We're saying to her no more city income tax. 

And that's catching on because, you know, we're hearing others are picking up this narrative. And I'm really pleased in the governor's State of the State, my conversation with Carl, the speaker, my conversation with others in Albany, they are all saying that we need to do more and utilize the powers that we have. 

And so this is going to allow low-income families to be excused in their income tax. And, you know, this is, again, within our span of control, if we get the bill passed in Albany, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Senator Leroy Comrie, I thank them for passing the bill, I mean, for introducing the bill, and we're hoping we can get it passed.