$1.4 Billion to Protect Critical Programs Previously Facing Spending Cliffs, Maintaining Funding to CUNY, Cultural Institutions, Libraries, Education Programs, Sanitation, and Social Services
Our Bureau
New York, NY
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has released the “Best Budget Ever” — the balanced, $115.1 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Executive Budget that makes new investments safer, more affordable city that is the best place to raise a family. Through strong fiscal management, the Adams administration has, once again, set the table for strategic investments that protect funding for critical services, invests in public safety by allocating funding for key criminal justice reform programs, and puts the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on track to reach a uniformed headcount of up to 35,000 officers by the fall of 2026. Additionally, this budget increases affordability, cleans city streets and parks, builds more affordable housing, fulfills massive generational projects, and expands educational opportunities like early childhood education and universal after-school for New York City’s children and their families, among other initiatives, all while maintaining record-high reserves and ensuring a strong fiscal future for the City of New York.
“Today, I am proud to present our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget: Our ‘Best Budget Ever,’” said Mayor Adams. “This budget is a testament to our commitment to making New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to raise a family. From prioritizing access to child care and launching ‘After-School for All’ to investing in permanent funding for libraries, CUNY, and our world-class institutions that make New York City what it is, to tackling quality-of-life issues and making our streets safer, the $1.4 billion we’re investing to protect and lift up critical programs will make lives better for families across all five boroughs. We are doing all of this while maintaining record-high reserves to help us face anything that comes our way. And, with the city’s largest 10-year capital plan at $173 billion, we are delivering on infrastructure improvements and transformative generational projects that were talked about for decades but never achieved. This is the budget my mom needed, that my family needed, and, with it, we’re saying to working families: your city has your back.”
Since taking office, the Adams administration has invested in safer streets and communities. As part of this work, the city has launched a $500 million blueprint to keep communities safe from gun violence, surged police officers into the subways multiple times to help reduce crime in the transit system, released plans to crack down on auto thefts and combat retail thefts, hired additional mental health clinicians to support people with untreated severe mental illness and announced plans to pilot new technology in the subways, expanded the “Saturday Night Lights” youth program to keep young people safe and engaged, and supported a record 100,000 summer job opportunities annually for young people. To get more NYPD officers on city streets, Mayor Adams recently announced that, combined with expanded eligibility requirements, the administration is putting the NYPD on a path to having 35,000 officers by the fall of 2026.
Following several back-to-back years of shattering affordable housing records, Mayor Adams announced new investments to create more homes, connect more New Yorkers to homes, and keep more New Yorkers in the homes they have. This builds on the Adams administration’s successful housing record, which led the effort to pass Mayor Adams’ historic “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan, the most pro-housing proposal in New York City history that will create 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years. Through the administration’s neighborhood rezonings and City of Yes, the city is projected to create 30 percent more units of housing in less than four years than in the previous 20 years combined. The administration has successfully advocated for the first expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which put over $345 million back in the pockets of hard-working New Yorkers and their families. The FY 2026 Executive Budget builds on these achievements by making key investments that make New York City more affordable for working-class people, including:
The city’s strong economy — notably in job creation and tourism — reflects the Adams 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. Tax revenue is expected to increase by nearly 8 percent in FY 2025, driven by growth in income and business taxes, though, as the economy slows, growth is forecast to decline to around 1 percent in FY 2026. This results in an upward revision over the FY 2026 Preliminary Budget of $1.7 billion in FY 2025 and $1 billion in FY 2026, and puts the city forecast on-par with fiscal monitors and the New York City Council.
