Mayor Adams announces NYC preliminary budget

Mayor Eric Adams released New York City’s preliminary budget for the 2023 fiscal year. The $98.5 billion budget prioritizes public safety, childcare, and supporting young New Yorkers and working families. 

The announcement came in two days after Mayor Adams launched the Subway Safety Plan to stop homeless people from sheltering in the subway. Mayor’s 2023 preliminary budget would lower Department of Homeless Services (DHS) spending by $615 million (from almost $2.8 billion to $2.15 billion), 6 sqft reports. According to City Limits, most of this reduction comes from about $500 million in COVID-related funding allocated to the agency. 

“I made a commitment to New Yorkers to spend taxpayer dollars more wisely, while making the upstream investments necessary to ensure a robust recovery — and this administration’s first Preliminary Budget achieves exactly that,” said Mayor Adams. “We are cutting spending, making government run more efficiently, investing in public safety, and providing much-needed help to working families across our city.”

Here are some of the highlights of the FY23 preliminary budget:

- Invest $25 million to create more childcare spaces with property tax abatements for property owners who retrofit property 

- $25 million to help parents to get back to work with tax credits for businesses that provide free or subsidized childcare

- $75 million annual funding for Fair Fares program to help low-income New Yorkers afford Metro Cards

- Baseline the funding for 100,000 summer jobs for the city youth

- Reduce maternal deaths and childbirth complications and provide care coordination to high-risk patients.  

NYC housing advocates criticized budget cuts for homeless services. As a candidate, Mayor Adams promised to double the city's annual capital housing budget to $4 billion to increase access to affordable housing, New York Housing Conference reports. 

“We will be advocating the City Council and the administration to increase city capital housing funding to match Mayor Eric Adams campaign commitment, and monitoring the expense budget cuts to ensure HPD and other agencies have the resources they need,” Rachel Fee, Executive Director of the New York Housing Conference, wrote in the statement. “The City Council will be holding budget hearings next month and Mayor Adams will release his Executive Budget in April or May.” 

Resources: 

“Mayor Eric Adams Releases Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2023,” (NYC, 2022)

“Mayor’s budget comes up short on housing and homelessness, NYC advocates say,” by Michelle Cohen (6sqft, 2022)

“Mayor Eric Adams Fails to Deliver on Promise to Double Housing Investment,” (New York Housing Conference, 2022)

“Mayor’s Budget Plan Cuts $615M from Homeless Services, as Subway Crackdown Intensifies,” by David Brand 

“February 2022 Financial Plan Detail,” (The City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams, 2022-2023)

“Campaign promises left out of Adams' budget,” by ERIN DURKIN, ANNA GRONEWOLD and DEANNA GARCIA (Politico, 2022)