'Laser-Focused on Fiscal Discipline': Mayor Adams Presents First Budget Plan

*Reposted from Gotham Gazette. Written by Samar Khurshid (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)*

Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday released a $98.5 billion preliminary budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The plan makes for a reduction in spending of about $4.3 billion compared to the last modification of the current fiscal year 2022 budget in November by Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio. With his first budget proposal, Adams outlined cost-cutting measures at city agencies, added funds to the city’s reserves, and made investments in public safety, summer youth employment, transit discounts for low-income New Yorkers, child care, and more.

The budget plan will now become the subject of a series of preliminary budget hearings held by the City Council as well as evaluation by others, including city Comptroller Brad Lander, leading to the mayor’s executive budget iteration, more Council hearings, negotiations, and eventually an adopted city budget. That spending plan will be influenced by the new state budget due by April 1, as well as other factors like tax receipts and more.

“Now, after two years of struggle, we are on the brink of a recovery that offers us a once-in-a generation opportunity to make real change on a grand scale,” Adams, a Democrat in office just seven weeks, said in Wednesday remarks as he presented his budget. “This is an opportunity to rethink our priorities. An opportunity to address longstanding problems and implement new solutions. An opportunity to change the way we work and the way we live, the way we educate our children and take care of our people.”

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