Budget

New York City’s November budget update – by the numbers

The city’s in better fiscal shape than expected, and that means more spending.

New York City Hall

New York City Hall Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a modified budget for fiscal year 2025 this week that added funding for new police officers and the city’s cash assistance and rental voucher programs. 

The November Financial Plan – one of several budget updates that happens throughout the fiscal year – added roughly $3 billion to the original $112 billion budget agreed upon by the Adams administration and the City Council in late June. While the modified plan adds funding for some important city programs, it doesn’t make any major restorations to prior budget cuts enacted by the Adams administration. 

Here are some highlights.

$115 billion: The modified city budget for fiscal year 2025 – up from the $112.4 billion budget adopted in late June. According to the mayor’s budget office, that increase mostly came from federal and state grant funds.

$5.46 billion, $5.57 billion, and $6.34 billion: The respective budget gaps between anticipated revenue and expected spending now projected in fiscal years 2026, 2027 and 2028. These are slightly lower than where they were upon June budget adoption.

$785 million: The total projected savings in fiscal year 2025.

$201 million: Unexpected additional tax revenue for fiscal year 2025.

$436 million: Money saved on migrant spending since fiscal year 2025 started in July. The Adams administration largely credited this number to the fact that fewer asylum-seekers entered the shelter system than the city initially expected and the city’s efforts to cut spending through shelter eviction policies.

1,600 police officers: Crediting savings on migrant spending and better-than-anticipated tax revenue, the Adams administration restored two previously canceled Police Academy classes. The new police officers will be added to the New York City Police Department by October 2025, growing department ranks to just shy of 34,000 officers. 

$467 million: Added funding for the city’s cash assistance program, which helps low-income New Yorkers pay for basic needs like groceries. 

$115 million: Added funding to fill a budget hole for the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention rental assistance program (CityFHEPS). 

$80 million: Funding for technology resources in New York City public schools that was previously funded by temporary stimulus dollars.

$65 million: Funding for school contract nurses previously funded with temporary stimulus dollars.

$6.7 million: Added funding to support the Bellevue Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit – a Manhattan hospital unit to support incarcerated patients with serious health conditions scheduled to open in early 2025.

$1 million: Increasing staffing for Operation Padlock to Protect – the city-wide campaign that kicked off in the spring to shut down unlicensed smoke and cannabis shops. 

$62 million: How much money an advocacy coalition was urging the city to restore to the parks department in wake of previous budget cuts. None of that ended up being restored. Instead, the only increase to the parks department was funding for 9,000 new steel trash bins.