Mayor Adams' budget plan restores NYPD funding but keeps $58 million cut to city libraries

Brannan told reporters after the mayor’s announcement that there’s still more than $1 billion in revenue presently on hand to restore prior cuts.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not the full loaf that we’re looking for,” he said. “There’s more than enough here to restore all the cuts, get us back to zero and then some.”

The council has consistently projected rosier tax revenues than the mayor’s office, a perspective its Democratic leaders say should allow the city to avert nearly all budget cuts the mayor has implemented and sought. On Wednesday, even the typically fiscally hawkish Citizens Budget Commission said Adams’ latest spending plan “significantly underbudgets,” leaving an unclear fiscal snapshot for how the city “will maintain, expand, or shrink critical programs.”

The presidents of the city’s three public library systems said they were “deeply disappointed” by the executive budget blueprint.

“The $58.3M in cuts that libraries are facing, if enacted, threaten to upend much of the progress we’ve made over the past few years, and will severely impact vulnerable communities who need our services the most,” New York Public Library President Anthony Marx, Queens Public Library President Dennis Walcott and Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson said in a joint statement. “We’ve already lost seven-day service city-wide, and are looking at most branches being open for only five days a week should these cuts go through.”

If the cuts are pushed through, the systems would also have to delay openings of new library branches and curtail various programming, including everything from free U.S. citizenship and English language classes for immigrants to young adult literacy courses and career development programs for school-age kids, the leaders warned in March.

In a briefing later in the day, an Adams administration official, who only spoke on condition of anonymity, said that while the NYPD would avoid immediate cuts under Adams’ executive plan, the department is looking at some trims in the long run. That includes not being able to hire two new classes of officers that are supposed to start in spring and summer of 2025 that “remain unfunded,” the official said.

The NYPD’s overtime budget, meantime, continues to skyrocket. NYPD overtime spending is set to hit $961 million this fiscal year alone, a massive figure driven by increased subway patrols and responses to recent protests in the city, according to the administration official.

On the education front, Adams’ executive budget would restore $514 million in funding previously cut for key programs, like the free 3-K and pre-K programs.

Some education advocates say that restoration, which was first announced last week, isn’t enough to ensure all children in the city can access the popular programs.

In his news conference, Adams promised the programs would be universally accessible.

“Everyone who wants a seat will have access to a seat, and we’re not going to put someone on the E train and send them all the way out to South Jamaica, Queens, if they live in Manhattan,” Adams said. “We’re going to be accommodating as we always have been to make sure that these children are getting that early childhood education.”

Various cuts to other city agencies remain in the executive budget. That includes eliminating a parks department “community garden program for at risk youth,” budget documents show. By scrapping that program, the city will save $140,000 in the 2025 fiscal year, the documents say.

The release of the mayor’s executive proposal kicks off the last sprint of the city’s budget season before he and the council must adopt a final budget for the 2025 fiscal year by the July 1 deadline.

In its budget response released earlier this month, the council said it had identified $3.3 billion in unrealized tax revenue as compared to the mayor’s preliminary plan. Council Democrats have argued that additional cash should be used to avoid nearly all of the mayor’s cuts.

The mayor’s executive budget also predicts a rosier revenue picture than his preliminary plan. However, the executive plan isn’t quite as optimistic as the council’s projection, predicting $2.3 billion in more revenue as compared to the preliminary blueprint from January.

“We have to be extremely conservative, we can’t get it wrong,” Adams said of why his office’s revenue forecasts remain lower than the council’s.