Last month, Mayor Eric Adams proposed a $101 billion city budget for the fiscal year that starts in July, about 1% more than de Blasio’s final budget. Now the City Council is rewriting the document. The council’s massive proposed spending increase shows that if the mayor isn’t living fully in the reality of high inflation, the council is fully in fantasyland.
Adams’ fiscal year 2023 proposal is what passes for a fiscally conservative budget in New York City, especially with inflation running close to 8%. The mayor put out a prudent enough document, asking city agencies to save money and reduce headcount as his commissioners figure out how their departments actually work.
The council, though, wants to increase spending by another $1.3 billion.
The numbers show the council’s newfound aggression. During Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first budget season, the council proposed $257 million in its own programs, less than half a percentage point of spending funded with tax dollars.
This council wants to add 1.8% to tax-funded spending. (City tax and fee dollars constitute about $71 billion of the city budget; the remainder comes from federal and state sources.)
The council is particularly bold when it comes to social services. It wants $800 million annually in added spending on “affordable, supportive and public housing.”
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post