The New York City Council on Sunday voted to adopt a $112.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2025, restoring funds for full library service, cultural institutions, school and student programs.
The budget also includes a plan to fund and fix the early childhood education (ECE) system, according to a press release from the City Council.
The ECE plan would provide funding to add seats and childcare vouchers for children without them, advance operational solutions to problems in the system that can fill vacant 3-K and Pre-K seats and strengthen it.
"Our administration’s mission is clear: Protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make this city more livable — and this budget is a direct testament to that mission," Mayor Eric Adams said after the City Council vote.
The budget also secured the addition of $2 billion in capital funding over the next two years to support the creation and preservation of more affordable housing.
“The Council is proud to adopt a city budget that restores and invests funding in New Yorkers’ priorities and the services that advance a healthier and safer city,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “These investments in affordable housing and homeownership, early childhood education and CUNY, libraries and cultural institutions, parks and sanitation, senior services and youth programs, mental health and public safety programs support our residents in every community. Despite the challenges, the Council has never wavered from our commitment to investing in solutions, and we will continue to push the City to meet the scale of our challenges.
Reports of New York City’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, said Council Member Justin Brannan, chair of the Council's finance committee.
"But making sure New York City remains the capital of the world is hard work and doesn’t happen on its own. That’s why what we invest in for the next 12 months matters,” he said.
There were three City Council members who voted against the budget, including Brooklyn Councilmembers Shahana Hanif and Alexa Avilés.
In her latest newsletter, Hanif said she did not like the funding cuts, among other things, to the City University of New York system and Department of Parks and Recreation.
"At the same time, Mayor Adams is funneling money into his NYPD pet projects that do not work towards real community safety including the Cop City multi-agency training center, the 86 member PR team, the teenage school police cadet program, and the Strategic Response Group," Hanif said. "A budget is about choices and Mayor Adams has made the wrong ones."
The fiscal 2025 year starts today, July 1. Details about the budget can be found here.
