The Speaker’s Corner: A budget that delivers affordability, stability, and opportunity

The City Council has passed our annual budget – a milestone that occurs every year before the first of July. 

We started this process back in January, and after ensuring that we won’t raise property taxes nor will we raid the Rainy-Day fund, it all came to a head last week. 

After six months of negotiations, I’m extremely proud to share that the Council and the Mayor have agreed on a budget that supports our most vulnerable New Yorkers, strengthens the services they rely on and safeguards their financial future.

While maintaining our duty to deliver a balanced budget, we also secured the most ever capital and expense funding for the city, 

With that funding, we are creating a safer, more affordable, and more livable city, and helping our residents stay and thrive in the place that they love.  

Among the many transformative investments, there are three that we in the Council are particularly excited to highlight. 

First, to tackle the affordability crisis that is pushing people out of the five boroughs, we are expanding housing vouchers to help thousands of low-income New Yorkers stay in their homes and out of shelters. This stemmed from the settlement of a lawsuit between the Council and the Mayor regarding a rental assistance program called CityFHEPS. The settlement includes a new bill the Council passed that sets guardrails to contain costs in the long run, and, importantly, enables more families to stay in stable residences. 

But we know New Yorkers need more than a secure home – they need to be able to travel to and from them, a way of getting to school, the workplace, and the doctor. Yet the cost of doing so can often be a burden, and that’s why we’re expanding the Fair Fares program to offer half-priced transit rides to more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — marking the largest expansion of the program in its history. Our city has the best public transportation system in the nation, and all residents deserve access to the opportunities that it affords us. 

While these two programs will bring relief to New Yorkers as soon as this year, we have our eye on the long-term future as well. 

We secured funding for a program called NYC Kids RISE, which will provide a college savings account with $1,000 for every public-school kindergartener. As the nation’s largest universal college savings program, we’re investing both in our children and our city, and effectively combating income inequality.

The rest of the budget is also full of wins for New Yorkers. All eight and a half million of us will benefit from fully restored funding to parks – which we baselined at $14.4 million – and the additional investments into our acclaimed cultural institutions. More of our youngest New Yorkers will take swim safety lessons, and the oldest will receive meals at home. And we’ll all enjoy cleaner neighborhoods, having almost doubled the number of staff who clean vacant lots.

These, too, are just a few examples of many, and we’ll be making more announcements later this summer about all that’s included. 

But even with these life-changing investments for millions of New Yorkers, we made sure to be fiscally prudent, setting aside $350 million for the city’s reserves.

We were only able to achieve such a budget because of the hard work of countless people. My staff worked day and night to shape and then negotiate each provision, and I am extremely grateful for their tireless efforts.

Lastly, we couldn’t have done it without the collaboration of the Mayoral Administration. We came together in the shared interest of wanting the best for our city, for our people, for New Yorkers who deserve affordability, stability, and opportunity. And this is a budget that works to achieve all three.