Libraries appear spared in tense NYC budget talks

For months, Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council have battled over which city services should be prioritized in negotiations over the city’s more than $100 billion budget.

With the budget deadline approaching on Friday, a deal is near and city libraries appear to have been spared budget cuts.

Mr. Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has pushed for broad cuts across all city agencies. City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams and the Council’s Progressive Caucus have warned that the cuts would be devastating for New Yorkers.

Many other city institutions and programs are at stake: the City University of New York, parks, discounted MetroCards for poor New Yorkers, affordable housing, schools and universal kindergarten, free legal services, and home delivery meals for senior citizens.

Here’s what you need to know:

Libraries seem to be safe

Library leaders have been warning for months that the mayor’s budget cuts could force many branches to close on weekends.

Libraries appeared to be spared $36 million in possible cuts Wednesday, according to a person involved in the budget negotiations. However, city council leaders threatened to walk out of negotiations in protest of the proposed cuts, the person said the mayor’s office disputed that characterization and called the discussions “productive and cordial”.

In a statement Wednesday night, Ms. Adams thanked New Yorkers who “raised their voices in support” of libraries.

“This successful result for the coming year’s budget is an achievement shared by all New Yorkers,” she said.

How is the municipality addressing the housing shortage?

New York City is facing a housing crisis with skyrocketing rents and record homelessness.

Mrs. Adams, the speaker of the City Council, has called for an additional $318 million, beyond the mayor’s budget proposal, for affordable housing and other neighborhood programs, and an additional $3 billion in capital funding.

Housing has been one of the most bitter issues dividing the Speaker and the Mayor. Last week Mr. Adams vetoed a package of bills approved by the Council that would have expanded the city’s rental housing voucher program to more struggling New Yorkers.

Ms Adams, who is not related to the mayor, called his veto a “damaging act of futile political theatre” and said the council was ready to override his veto.

The mayor argued that the bills were too costly and beyond the Council’s legal authority. Mr. Adams also expressed frustration this week that state legislators did not do more to address the housing crisis during their recent legislative session.

“We didn’t benefit from Albany’s dealing with affordable housing,” the mayor said at an unrelated news conference. “That’s incredible when you think about it.”

A Debate on Funding for Schools and 3-K

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus has released its own list of budget priorities, including ending cuts to public schools, universal kindergarten and CUNY.

The group has criticized Mr. Adams for stopping the expansion of 3-K for All, a preschool program for 3-year-olds and a signature policy of his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. City council leaders have also opposed cuts to CUNY, a move that programs like CUNY Reconnectresulting in 16,000 students re-enrolling.

Public schools have also faced budget cuts due to declining enrollment.

Two of the mayor’s education priorities are expected to be included in the budget, according to another person familiar with budget negotiations. An additional amount of about $20 million will go towards a plan, announced by the school chancellor in Maywith the promise that all individual school budgets will be kept the same or increased next school year.

The budget will also include funding to convert about 1,900 vacant early childhood education standard seats into extended daytime seats preferred by families, the person said.

Programs for poor New Yorkers could be scrapped

City council leaders have called for more funding for a program that provides free legal services to tenants about to be evicted, senior citizen services and half-price MetroCards for impoverished New Yorkers.

In 2017, New York became the first city in the country to give the right to counsel to tenants being evicted in court. Legal service providers are struggling to cope with the increasing workloadand the Council called for an additional $18 million for the program.

The city council has also expressed its concerns home delivery meal cuts for seniors and called for more funding for the program.

The Council has also requested $61 million to expand the popular Fair Fares NYC program, which offers half-price bus and subway rides, and to allow New Yorkers with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line to qualify .

Mayor Adams has said broad cuts are needed as the city faces a range of financial challenges, including the migrant crisis, new costs for city employee employment contracts and vacant space in commercial real estate.

What if the budget is overdue?

With so much tension between the mayor and city council, some worry that the budget will come too late.

Missing the deadline on Friday would be “no problem,” said Ana Champeny, a vice president with the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The current budget will remain in effect until a new one is approved.

Nevertheless, the mayor and the municipal council chairman want to meet the deadline.

“We don’t want this to be delayed,” the mayor said Monday.