Mayor Eric Adams proposes new $99.7 million budget that includes an additional $200 million for NYPD
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams has proposed his new budget, a vision for the future that focuses on investing in programs that he says will better the lives New Yorkers.
It consists of everything from planting new trees to building affordable housing, from infrastructure to fixing the COVID-ravaged economy, and, of course, making the streets safe again.
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Adams likened the economic challenges he faces in bringing New York City back from the pandemic to the challenges faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Great Depression. He's now calling himself ELA -- Eric LeRoy Adams -- and he's vowing to be as good as FDR was in coming back from that tough fiscal times.
"Then, just as now, there was no easy solution or quick fix. FDR, like ELA, understood that people needed an honest reckoning of the problems and bold plans to solve them," Adams said.
And with those words, the mayor unveiled his new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 -- a $99.7 billion proposed spending plan that, just like FDR's "New Deal," seeks to invest in people as a way of restoring the economy.
And, yes, with crime continuing to be a big problem, there is more money in the NYPD budget -- $200 million more to bring the police budget up to $5.8 billion.
"Money is going to the detectives' contracts, overtime, and the new initiatives that we put in place -- my gun safety team, cameras," Adams said.
There is also a hefty increase, $256 million, in the public safety budget to fund the subway safety plan, but the mayor is very unhappy about the way transit cops are being deployed.
"We are going to start taking very aggressive actions to make sure police are patrolling our subway system and not patrolling their iPhone," Adams said.
There is also money to hire more more school safety officers, but there's a problem.
"Can't get anyone to take the job," Adams said.
There is also a heavy emphasis on education and what the mayor calls "lifting up youth."
It calls for creating 17,000 new child care seats, 10,000 more seats in the summer school programs for grades K-12, and there is also $7.4 million for dyslexia screening and literacy programs.
On the economic front, the mayor said the city has gained 74 percent of the jobs lost during the pandemic. The city is expected to make a complete recovery by 2024, two quarters earlier than previously projected, and hotel occupancy is now at 86 percent, up from 63 percent in January.
And there is also $5 billion to build affordable housing.
"It all comes down to this: safety, jobs, schools, and housing. It sounds simple, radically practical, but it is the work of many hands, many minds, and many years," Adams said.
The mayor will now have to negotiate the budget with the City Council. It wanted him to earmark $2.8 billion for the kids of social service programs that are important to public safety. It said he only put $1.2 billion in the budget. Clearly, the council intends to push for more.
