News

“The fact that this balanced budget hinges on the possibility of a 9.5% property tax hike underscores the failure of Albany to act — but it also highlights the risk to ordinary New Yorkers if our leaders don’t prioritize progressive revenue and spending reforms,” the People’s Plan, a collection of progressive social service and political organizations, said in a statement.

Progressive budget watchdogs at The People’s Plan praised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s order yesterday for “chief savings officers” to hunt for “efficiencies” – even after hammering former Mayor Eric Adams’ savings plans throughout his term. Adams’ Program to Eliminate the Gap, or PEGs, were across-the-board percentage targets, while Mamdani’s – at this point – are looking more open-ended. Still, “if Mamdani touches what we deem core services without trying to bridge gaps and find cuts elsewhere, we will change our tune,” People’s Plan Executive Director Zara Nasir told City & State.

Zara Nasir, executive director of The People’s Plan NYC, a coalition of advocacy groups that organized against Adams’ budget cuts in recent years, said she’s encouraged to see Mamdani pushing the state to kick in more revenue. The group also sees an opportunity for city agencies to ramp up enforcement on fines and fees for landlords and other companies as a potential source of new revenue.

In New York, The People’s Plan NYC (a coalition of over 50 local organizations) won major fund restorations from Mayor Eric Adams: tens of millions of dollars for public education and over $200 million for early childhood education. It also secured tens of millions of dollars in new funding for people’s budget priorities, programs like immigrant legal services and expanded peer-led crisis care and safety programs. Unifying public pressure on Mayor Adams—through rallies, testimonies, postcards, petitions, and some heckling—was decisive to these wins

A group of New York City students rallied to have Eric Adams stop foreclosing on their future. "Hey hey, ho ho, these budget cuts have got to go," the dozens of students chanted as they arrived at Tweed Courthouse, where the City's Department of Education is based. Holding signs reading "Stop Cutting Student Futures" and "Protect the Families in This City," they and some of their teachers were there to protest years of inadequate funding for public schools, in conjunction with the group People's Plan NYC, which has been protesting Adams's austerity measures since his first term.

It wasn’t until Samira did some research and helped her mom obtain a voucher that subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income families that she could fully resume her extracurricular activities. That experience is part of what drove Samira to speak out, alongside dozens of her classmates and members of the People’s Plan, a progressive coalition pushing for additional investments in social services, at the Education Department’s downtown headquarters on Thursday. They demanded additional investments in early childhood education, support for immigrant students, arts education, mental health, and CUNY.

Scott Sommer spoke with Zara Nasir, Executive Director of The People's Plan NYC, about the People's Plan's work on a people's budget that can restore cuts made by Eric Adams and reverse the push for austerity and privatization, the blaming and possible persecution of migrants, and collusion with the federal govt.

Clawing budget funds back for education, housing and mental health services, and riding Eric Adams out of office on a rail? Are we even allowed to dream such lofty dreams in 2025? We can and we should, according to the progressive coalition behind The People’s Plan NYC, which, as they have for the past few years, went public yesterday with a series of proposals for the city budget’s next fiscal year, this time with a new demand attached: that Eric Adams either resign or be removed from office.