June 30, 2026 —

The budget is a breath of fresh air and a solid foundation for a city government that finally works for everyday people — we will keep fighting to fund more in the care and affordability agenda. 

New York, NY — Today, The People’s Plan NYC, a coalition of progressive grassroots and labor groups fighting for a city budget that delivers dignity, care, and justice for all New Yorkers, responded to the passage of the Council and Mayor’s final FY27 budget.

After years of fighting and organizing against budgets that prioritized the wealthy few over poor and working class New Yorkers, we’re pleased to see the fruits of our labor. Our coalition made austerity politically costly for politicians like Eric Adams, and made “Care Not Cuts” the slogan of city budget organizing because New Yorkers deserve a budget that delivers affordability and justice, not criminalization and cuts. The wins in this budget reflect that long fought fight.

The landscape today is vastly different than it was just a year ago. Mayor Mamdani broke with the corruption and austerity Eric Adams forced on the city — and did it in a brutal year, with Trump’s federal cuts draining city resources. He took the fight to Albany to tax the rich and rebalance the city’s relationship with the state and won some concessions. With a new pied-a-terre tax and more state aid, the Mayor closed the deficit and gave key programs the stability needed to serve New Yorkers for the long haul. With advocates pushing on the outside, the Council’s progressive caucus played a vital role and held firm on social safety net programs like CityFHEPs and Crisis to Care programs and pushed back against new NYPD hires. All of this was only possible because of years of outside organizing on budget justice.

Here are key programs we won during this budget cycle:

• $26 million in non-carceral hate violence prevention
• More than $70 million in key education programs like restorative justice and mental health continuum
• 181 new staff over three years at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and 50 new auditors at the Department of Finance to make corporate lawbreakers pay
• $175 million for city rental assistance vouchers (CityFHEPS), a step towards expanding a key program to get and keep more New Yorkers housed
• $79 million for fair fares transit affordability program
• $18 million for crisis care and mental health care
• Increased investments in childcare, including $25 million
• Investments in CUNY programs like ASAP ($4.5 million) and ACE ($9.1 million)
• Increased funding for immigrant legal services
• $15 million for gender-affirming care
• Restorations to parks and libraries
• Restorations to the City Commission on Human Rights

After an outcry and rapid organizing against a decision by the NYPD Commissioner to increase the NYPD’s headcount, the Mayor reversed the decision to hire 580 new police officers, keeping headcount flat at the NYPD, and cut 586 vacancies at the Department of Corrections. This is a huge victory for the grassroots activists and New Yorkers impacted by police violence who fought for care not cops.

This budget is a strong foundation for the affordability agenda that New Yorkers have repeatedly voted for, but there are still proven and vital programs that remain unfunded and underfunded simply because the city lacks the ability to raise additional revenue. Governor Hochul left billions on the table because she didn’t have the courage to make corporations and the ultra-rich pay their fair share.

Here’s what was left out of the FY27 adopted budget:

• No funding for free fares for low-income New Yorkers
• Limited funding for the childcare workforce and the childcare waitlist
• Limited funding for backfilling CUNY positions
• Just a partial expansion of CityFHEPS housing vouchers

We’ll keep fighting for a people’s budget. That means we’ll be organizing on the city-level to fight for care and for support for tax the rich in Albany next year to fund the city’s affordability agenda.

“This budget is a clean break from the corruption and austerity politics of the past. It proves that the city can work for everyday people—not just the wealthy,” said Zara Nasir, Executive Director of the People’s Plan. “Essential programs like parks and libraries were baselined, and finally the NYPD’s budget isn’t cannibalizing the very social safety net that builds prosperity and safety in the first place. The Council’s progressive caucus deserves big credit for working creatively and courageously throughout this budget cycle, including securing the future of vital programs like CityFHEPS and crisis care that tens of thousands of New Yorkers rely on. There are still gaps in the social safety net because Governor Hochul didn’t have the courage to make the rich pay their fair share, but this is a strong foundation for the city to build from. We’ll keep fighting in Albany for the affordability agenda that New Yorkers have voted for again and again.”

“Today’s budget announcement demonstrates that this administration is serious about delivering real safety to New Yorkers,” said Audrey Sasson, Executive Director of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). “For over a decade, JFREJ has been calling for New York City leaders to invest in prevention, not punishment, in order to address our city’s hate violence crisis. Year after year, the city government failed to deliver – until today. By delivering on the mayor’s campaign promise to increase funding for hate violence prevention by 800% and keep the NYPD headcount flat, the Mamdani administration and the City Council have significantly raised the bar for what it looks like to address antisemitism and hate violence.”

Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, said, “Mayor Mamdani’s election gave us hope for a new era that would end the reliance on police and jails to address social needs. Today, we are grateful that our demands were heard, and our City budget will make sustained investments in expanding community-based mental health treatment teams, like IMT and ACT, as well as crisis respite centers, rather than growing the police force, which would have funneled more people with mental health needs into Rikers. We applaud the Progressive Caucus in particular for their staunch advocacy for care over criminalization. This budget represents key steps in the right direction, and progress we will need to continue to build on in order to strengthen community safety, sustainably shrink the jail population, and close Rikers.”

“While we didn’t expect every priority to be addressed in his first year in office in just 6 months, Mayor Mamdani, the Progressive Caucus and the City Council balanced the budget without centering austerity,” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Co-Executive Director of the Alliance For Quality Education (AQE). We are excited to see the investments in valuable programs like Student Success Centers and Restorative Justice, programs that work. Though the final budget includes a few million for the workforce there is more investment needed there and in providing relief for the 25k families on voucher waitlist. Next year Albany must tax the rich so we have the money we need to ensure children and families are thriving.”

Gustavo Gordillo, New York City-Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) Co-Chair, said, “After years of austerity, we are thrilled to finally see a budget that prioritizes the needs of working people by investing in affordability. The wins in this budget reflect the power of a movement. New Yorkers came together to demand more from our city when they voted to elect our socialist mayor. They continued to organize, together with leaders in the City Council, to win investments in affordable housing, public safety, and trans healthcare. Our work isn’t done – we’ll keep fighting to tax the rich to win the fully-funded city we deserve.”

“We don’t have to be stuck with austerity budgets. Years of organizing for budget justice across all issues, combined with the results of electoral organizing that produced a Mayor and shifts in electoral landscape, has led to this budget centered on meeting people’s needs,” said Fahd Ahmed, Director, DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving.

“Mayor Mamdani and the City Council closed a $12 billion budget gap, inherited from the Adams Administration, while continuing to invest in youth and families,” said Andrea Ortiz, Director of Dignity in Schools Campaign of New York (DSC-NY). “DSC-NY’s students, parents, teachers, and advocates fought hard with us to ensure that today’s adopted budget restored funding for essential school equity and safety initiatives that had been funded with dollars set to expire later this week, including restorative justice, the mental health continuum, and immigrant family communications. We are pleased that the City’s police headcount will not grow this year and will keep urging the City to transition school safety away from the NYPD and into supportive and well-paying, union jobs.”

“Today’s budget announcement demonstrated that New York City can balance the budget while investing in programs that make public school more equitable and accessible for Black and Brown students and families,” said Maria Bautista, founder of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools. “The Sensory Exploration, Education & Discovery (SEED) ($8.4M), Restorative justice ($6M), the Mental Health Continuum ($5M), Immigrant family communications and outreach ($4M), and Student Success Centers ($3.3M) programs serve thousands of students and families each year. We are grateful Mayor Mamdani and the City Council held the line to ensure these essential programs will continue for another year and will urge them to make additional equity investments a priority for next year.”

“Today’s budget deal takes important steps toward ending homelessness in New York City through the expansion of CityFHEPS and begins to chart a path for true community safety by investing in services such as community-based mental health programs while not increasing the NYPD headcount,” said VOCAL-NY. “We remain disappointed that the Council and the Mayor chose not to prioritize free transit for the lowest-income New Yorkers who are currently denied the basic right to travel across the City and look forward to working with all parties to win this demand in the coming months.”

“We applaud the Mayor for his 2026 budget that is not centered in cutting social services and making life tougher for working class New Yorkers. This budget is not perfect, but it’s a good start. We still need more funding for childcare providers and CityFHEPS vouchers to help New Yorkers get out of temporary shelters and into more stable living arrangements. GasFreeNYC, a pilot program to get small NYC homes off of gas, was not fully funded but the $2M seed funding will ensure more homeowners can meet the city’s climate goals. NYCC looks forward to continue to work with Mayor Mamdani, Speaker Menin, the Progressive Caucus, and the rest of the City Council to bring that New York City to reality,“ said James Inniss Deputy Political Director at New York Communities for Change (NYCC).