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COMMUNITY OP-ED JULY 11, 2025 | The Indian Eye 12

The Best Budget Ever Gets Even Better:

Making New York City More Affordable

for Working-Class New Yorkers

other American city to keep our im-
migrant neighbors safe.
Additionally, this budget backfills
funding for the federal AmeriCorps
service program that improves lives,
strengthens communities, and fos-
ters civic engagement through service
and volunteering within our own city
agencies. This program was previ-
ously funded by a grant from Amer-
iCorps, and we are now exploring
ways to create a new program funded
by our city.
ERIC ADAMS With this Adopted Budget we are
also doubling down on our commit-
ast week, our ‘Best Budget ment to address mental health con-
Ever’ got even better as our ad- cerns across all five boroughs. We are
Lministration worked with the supporting people experiencing se-
City Council to deliver a budget that To make the American Dream a reality for all New Yorkers, we must make our city more afford- vere mental illness and our city’s most
prioritizes public safety, affordability, able for working-class families (Agency file photo) vulnerable by investing $18 million to
and improved quality of life — the meet New Yorkers where they are.
things that matter most to New York- reality for all New Yorkers, we must tions across the three public library Since day one, public safety has
ers. Our budget builds on the work make our city more affordable for systems as well as an additional $2 been our North Star, it is the founda-
we have done to protect $1.4 billion working-class families. For too long, million to ensure seven-day-a-week tion on which our city is built, and we
in critical programs facing stimulus families have struggled to afford the service in 10 additional branches city- are proud New York remains the saf-
cliffs and makes real investments in high costs of child care, resulting wide. We are making sure that more est big city in America. New Yorkers
the areas working-class families care in many leaving the five boroughs. libraries can keep their doors open want to feel safe and not have to wor-
about most. Working families deserve better. And every day and offer the services that ry when they are crossing the street,
This is not a budget that favors the with this budget we are delivering for New Yorkers rely on. and that’s why this budget invests over
few, but all New Yorkers. It launches them. On the heels of launching our Our Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted $6 million at full ramp-up to create a
universal after-school programming “After-School for All” program, we are Budget also looks out for the New ‘Department of Sustainable Delivery’
and, if successful, could put New York now looking to offer families more Yorkers who need our help the most under the Department of Transpor-
on the path to becoming the first ma- options with a groundbreaking $10 and protects services that strength- tation to regulate commercial e-bike
jor U.S. city to provide free universal million pilot program to provide free en our communities. We are adding traffic and keep our streets safe.
childcare to low-income residents, in- child care for children aged two and nearly $2 million to provide critical And we continue to dam every
vests in permanent funding for librar- under from low-income families. This financial assistance to LGBTQ+ or- stream feeding into the river of crime
ies and CUNY, hires more teachers, program will help ease the affordabil- ganizations and providers that have and violence in our city by investing
keeps us on the pathway to 35,000 ity squeeze many families are feeling been impacted by the federal govern- $14 million in criminal justice initia-
uniformed police officers by the fall and get our kids the quality child ment’s policies. This funding will sup- tives, such as justice-involved sup-
of 2026, and, for the first time ever, care they need from the earliest ages. port essential services such as housing portive housing units, alternatives to
abolishes New York City personal And we are making transit more assistance, health care access, legal incarceration restoration, re-entry
income taxes for low-income New affordable for everyone in our city, support, and crisis intervention for restoration, and electronic monitor-
Yorkers thanks to our ‘Axe the Tax’ too, because working-class New LGBTQ+ individuals. ing, as well as ensuring our five dis-
plan that will put $63 million back in Yorkers shouldn’t have to spend their Our city, and our nation, was trict attorneys have more resources to
the pockets of 582,000 low-income entire paycheck just to get to their built by our immigrant brothers and pursue justice.
New Yorkers and their families. jobs. With this budget we are increas- sisters, but we know that, right now, This Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted
The decisions we made in this ing the ‘Fair Fares’ program so that many of them live in fear of being Budget builds on our strong fiscal
budget were guided by my own lived New Yorkers whose income is up to detained or deported, and that’s why management and invests in the ser-
experience as a lifelong New Yorker. 150 percent of the federal poverty lev- our administration is using every legal vices New Yorkers need. With this
I was a New York City public-school el can afford to use our transit system. means possible to keep them safe. In budget, we are making New York
student and a former NYPD officer. Our libraries are critical for chil- this budget, we are funding over $55 City safer, more affordable, and the
Fighting for the future of our city and dren, families, and every New Yorker, million in immigration-related legal best place to raise a family — a place
the needs of our neighbors is second and serve as the great equalizer by services for New Yorkers. With this where you know that your city is look-
nature to me, and it is what our ad- helping to level the playing field. With funding, not only will we be spending ing out for you.
ministration is doing every day. this budget, we are adding $15 million more than we did last year, but we will Eric Adams is the Mayor of
To make the American Dream a in funding to support library opera- also continue to spend more than any New York City, NY

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