BROOKLYN, NEW YORK): It may not be coming weeks early like it did last year, but a deal on the city budget for the upcoming fiscal year was reached last Thursday just in time before a July 1 deadline, bringing a season of more contentious negotiations between Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and the City Council to a close.
Mayor Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams held a press conference at City Hall on Thursday, announcing the $107 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2024. In a year marked by agency budget cuts and new spending on labor contracts, and the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, debate centered on the Adams administration’s push to further cuts for nearly all city agencies, citing new costs and looming fiscal risks. City Council leaders argued that cuts curtailed the city’s ability to deliver critical services.
At the eleventh hour, the city’s public libraries were spared budget cuts, following an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign by the city’s three systems and their supporters, who argued that any additional cuts – beyond what previous savings initiatives from the Adams administration had already slashed – would force reduced programming and weekend closings. It was all part of the so-called “budget dance” – traditionally, the mayor proposes more cuts than he has to. Then money is found, as city revenue exceeds the typically conservative estimates. “Unlike the Yankees, it was not a perfect game,” Mayor Adams said at the press conference in the City Hall rotunda. “But we got the win for working-class New Yorkers.” [Source: City & State].
and then 