Adams’s $115B Budget Proposal Contains Manhattan Surprises and Boosts for Police, Education

Mayor Eric Adams released his final $115-billion record-setting budget proposal for next year on May 1 with some big surprises for Manhattan residents while calling for more money for police, education, and housing.

“This budget is a testament to our commitment to making New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to raise a family,” Adams said.

Among the budget proposals aimed at Manhattan were $250 million to fund the Fifth Avenue of the Future project to turn the avenue between Bryant Park, at 42nd Street, and Central Park, at 59th Street, into a large, pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

The previously unveiled design calls for doubling the width of sidewalks to 33.5 feet each, expanding unobstructed walking space to 25 feet on each side, and adding another 8.5-foot-wide section for trees with plans for 230 new trees and 20,000 square feet of planters, new seating, and activation space.

And he also earmarked money for the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in Greenwich Village, which the Parks Department wants to tear down and community activists seek to repair. Adams said he is adding $51.8 million for the reconstruction of the historic rec center to fully fund the project, including a fully accessible pool, a pool house building, a new indoor recreation center, and preservation of the iconic Keith Haring mural.

“It’s unclear if this is intended for restoring the existing landmarked building, or demolishing and replacing it,” Andrew Berman of the Village Preservation Society wrote in an email blast to members on May 3. “But it’s tens of millions of dollars that can and should be used to repair and restore this historic community cornerstone.”

On the borough’s housing front, he included funds for what he called “the Manhattan Plan” to rezone parts of the borough to allow conversion of structures to residential housing, which he said could add 100,000 new housing units in the next decade.

Among the major initiatives unveiled by Adams, delivered at his alma mater, Bayside High School, was an increase in the NYPD budget of $309 million to push the overall budget to $6.1 billion and increase the number of uniformed officers to 35,000 by the fall of 2026, by hiring 3,400 new police officers. He also said the newly unveiled NYPD Quality of Life division will have 1,500 dedicated officers when it is fully rolled out. The Quality of Life pilot program now underway in six NYPD commands includes one Manhattan precinct on the East Side.

Adams conceded the rosy outlook could be impacted by events in Washington, but his budget director said the city is not bracing for a “doomsday” plan.

”We see uncertainty on the horizon due to recent federal policies, shifting tariffs,” he said. Adams’s budget director, Jacques Jiha, said that in the fiscal year now closing, tax revenues rose 8 percent. In the new fiscal year, they are predicting that will slow to only 1 percent.

”We’re not looking at doomsday,” said Jiha. “Currently, we’re looking at a slowdown in the economy. That is our forecast. Our forecast has not taken into account any recession.”

Still, Adams’s remark was a rare mild rebuke to the policies of President Donald Trump. Adams has refrained from criticism after the Trump justice department withdrew the five-count fraud and corruption case filed against him last September, which sidetracked much of his early reelection planning.

[While free from the criminal case, the blowback is still haunting Adams somewhat as he mounts a run for mayor as an independent. The city’s Campaign Finance Board is still denying his campaign any matching funds due to potential election-law violations pointed to in the indictments. One of the illegal straw donors has already pleaded guilty to steering illegal cash to the campaign. Adams has professed he had no knowledge of the scheme, but the Campaign Finance Board is not convinced.]

The city’s proposed fiscal year budget relies on $7.4 billion from federal funding, accounting for 6.4 percent of total funds, according to a series of briefs released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. He warned that federal actions to cut grant programs could jeopardize at least $535 million of federal aid to the city in the fiscal year now ending and the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. DiNapoli also warned that nearly all federal operating aid to the city could be hit with deep cuts or outright elimination.

While the Adams administration was pointing out the expected $1 billion increase in tax revenue next year, some of his opponents in the race for mayor were blasting him for being out of touch with a looming fiscal crisis.

Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor, said in a statement, “By refusing to put more money into reserves and prepare for the reality we are facing, Adams is once again failing to protect New Yorkers.” He said the Adams budget comes from “fanstasy land.”

City Council speaker Adrienne Adams, who picked up endorsements from the city’s biggest municipal union, DC 37, in her race for mayor, appeared at the budget address and said it was an improvement from prior budgets, but still needed work.

“While we must remain vigilant and prepared for the chaos and threats from the Trump administration, we cannot do it at the expense of the essential investments in our city and services for New Yorkers,” the speaker said in a joint statement with the chairman of the council’s finance committee, Justin Brannan.

The City Council has to negotiate the new budget with the mayor by the close of the current fiscal year on June 30.

“Putting your head in the sand doesn’t protect your neck,” Andrew Rein, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, told the New York Times.

Eric Adams said that the administration has set aside a record $8.5 billion in the current fiscal year and $2 billion in a “rainy day fund.”

Adams’s budget was particularly generous in its funds for education. The mayor said he was calling for $331 million additional funds for after-school programs to cover an additional 20,000 K-5 students over the next three years, pushing the after-school program to $775 million. That will mean some 184,000 kids in K-8 will have free after-school programs by the start of the 2027 school year.

He said he is also adding $192 million more for early childhood education and said that every child on a 3K wait list for 3-year-olds will have a guaranteed seat, pushing a program first started by Bill de Blasio.

He’s also adding an extra $298 million to fund school nurses, who serve in the city’s public schools as well as private schools.

CUNY funds, which were cut drastically two years ago, are scheduled to see $126 million in funds restored.

Two years ago, Adams was pushing through deep budget cuts in the face of the migrant crisis, which he said cost the city $7.5 billion. And in questions after the budget was unveiled, he was critical of the federal and state government for not doing more to offset the expenses. Still, despite all the turmoil, he said, ”We have not raised any taxes. We have not laid off any employees. And we have minimized the impact of services.” And he called the record-setting budget proposal his “best budget ever.”