Since 1975, at the height of the fiscal crisis, the FCB convenes to review and provide oversight to the City’s budget. Every year, the Comptroller provides a comprehensive budget analysis at the FCB’s annual meeting. It’s a duty I take very seriously.

In the FY 2025 Adopted Budget, a modest increase to tax revenues will help fund City expenditures, including the reversal of some senseless spending cuts announced earlier in the fiscal year (like public libraries).

Here are three main takeaways from my analysis of New York City’s FY 2025 Adopted Budget, and what it really means for New Yorkers:

The City’s economy faces significant challenges. While our low unemployment rate, rising job openings, and historically high labor force participation rates are encouraging, the housing affordability crisis is a huge problem, as well as higher inflation and consumer debt burden and delinquencies.
The Adams Administration’s chronic underbudgeting muddies financial plan projections. My report estimates a manageable gap of $1.59 billion in FY 2025, but much larger out-year budget gaps of $9.18 billion next year and even greater afterwards. The City must be more transparent, strategic, and proactive in addressing chronically underbudgeted costs.
The City must adopt a stronger fiscal framework. The Charter Revision Commission’s failure to adopt our recommendations to ensure adequate reserves in the rainy-day fund, keep debt service under control, find efficiencies, pay the City’s contractors on time, and improve capital budgeting was a missed opportunity. These steps can still be implemented by local law and policy, and I urge the Mayor and City Council to do so.

Did you know that New York City’s operating budget is the largest municipal budget in the country by far, and is larger than the budgets of all but four U.S. states? With size and power like that, it’s critical that better planning and stronger management are delivered.

Read my full analysis on New York City’s FY 2025 Adopted Budget here.

Thanks,

Brad