Adams' $115B ‘Best Budget Ever' is chocked full of freebies fit for an election year — but critics say it doesn't prepare NYC for the worst

New York Post

01-05-2025

The 'Best Budget Ever' may not prepare for the worst.
Mayor Eric Adams served up a $115 billion election year spending plan Thursday that's stuffed with voter-pleasing goodies, but that was still slammed by critics for squirreling away relatively little for a rainy day.
Hizzoner, who faces an uphill re-election battle, unveiled his 2026 executive budget during a campaign-like event from his alma mater Bayside High School in Queens, rather than City Hall, from which such announcements have traditionally been done.
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'This is not a budget that favors the few. It is budget for all of you,' Adams said, while flanked by students. 'In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that our fiscal Year 2026 executive budget is the best budget ever.'
The budget lavishes $1.4 billion on programs and services that had faced cuts — such as libraries, early child education and the City University of New York.
It also launches a universal after-school program and increases education funding by $376 million.
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The spending plan is the largest Adams has proposed since taking office in 2022, with last year's executive budget proposal coming in at $111.6 billion.
'Welcome to the election year!' said veteran campaign strategist Hank Sheinkopf, adding that incumbent mayors usually throw caution to the wind when seeking a second term.
'An election year means living in the moment. Tomorrow, next year is a long time away,' Sheinkopf told The Post. 'It's 'spend whatever we can now.' It's like a bank robbery.'
3 Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his proposed 2026 budget during a campaign-style event Thursday.
Stephen Yang
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3 Adams held the event in Bayside High School, his alma mater.
Stephen Yang
Critics quickly pounced on Adams seemingly failing to plan for the possibility of tough economic times in the near future, from President Trump's tariffs, a widely anticipated upcoming recession and potential federal funding cuts.
'Despite being flush with cash, Mayor Eric Adams' Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget fails to address the dual threats of looming federal budget cuts and a possible recession,' said Andrew Rein, president of the nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission.
'Instead of wisely adding $1 billion in next year's General Reserve to soften the first blows of federal cuts and $2 billion to the Rainy Day Fund, the budget increases spending to an unaffordable level.'
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Rein said the city should have between $8 and $10 billion in reserves for potential choppy economic waters — a sum that city budget Director Jacques Jiha agreed would be needed, if the Big Apple were in a 'doomsday' scenario.
'We're not looking at doomsday, we're looking at a slowdown in the economy,' he said.
'We believe we have adequate reserves.'
Adams' preliminary budget, released in January, was blasted by opponents, including in the progressive City Council, for needlessly cutting services.
But his administration maintained those slashes were necessary due to skyrocketing costs from the migrant crisis — which Jiha said has now cost the city more than $7 billion.
The mayor had begged Albany lawmakers in February for $1.1 billion to deal with the migrant crisis, contending then that the city needed it in 12 weeks.
City Hall officials offered nary a peep about the ask since then — and the supposed shortfall apparently has been covered by savings, with Jiha saying only 'Money is fungible' as an explanation.
The budget announced Thursday is Adams' first since the crisis largely subsided, and includes these spending increases and reversed cuts:
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$15.7 million for libraries
$96 million restoring CUNY savings
$298 million for school nurses
An overall near-$18 million increase to the parks budget
$92 million in annual funding for citywide 3-K
$20 million for new universal after-school programs
A $3 billion contribution for the MTA's capital plan
'Adams is using this budget to promote his re-election. He doesn't want to have much of a fight with the council,' said Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute.
'It's pre-emptive capitulation to the council,' she added, noting Adams was proposing $1.7 billion more in spending compared to his preliminary budget.
'Adams is blowing out the agency spending,' Gelinas said. '[He] is squandering the last of his budget credibility.'
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Not all programs and departments saw a funding increase. The following budget cuts were included in the plan:
$308 million for NYPD
$111 million for FDNY
$1.57 billion for Department of Social Services
$1.19 billion for Health + Hospitals
$840 million for Department of Homeless Services
$801 million for Administration for Children's Services
Talks with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is not related to Hizzoner and is running for the Democratic mayoral nomination, will continue until the June 30 deadline to pass the budget.
Adams' plan offered plenty of fodder from candidates hoping to boot him from Gracie Mansion, such as City Comptroller Brad Lander — who claimed the mayor was 'failing to protect New Yorkers' by not putting more cash in reserves.
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Former city comptroller and current mayoral candidate Scott Stringer also blasted Adams for failing to prepare for a potential 'extraordinary loss of funding for New York City.'
Adrienne Adams offered less gloom and doom — though she still cautioned against getting too comfortable.
'I think that the budget right now is good, but we can never be too certain about what is coming around the corner with this Trump administration,' she said.
Adams, who boasted of confronting then-President Joe Biden for migrant funding, hasn't been nearly as vocal about his growing ally Trump.
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3 Adams brushed off concerns about economic turmoil.
Stephen Yang
He said he hasn't been in contact with the White House, even as he acknowledged that the current global climate was creating 'uncharted waters.'
Adams' top deputy, however, was quick to put a positive spin on the potential financial woes.
'We are best positioned to address with Washington those issues going forward,' said First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro. 'Even asking a question about a doomsday scenario is to be with those pessimistic and political opportunists who don't bet on New York, who are saying, 'The sky is falling.'
'The sky isn't falling.'