At the 2025 Financial Control Board meeting, Mayor Eric Adams praised New York City’s resilient recovery, emphasizing a strong economy, balanced budgets, and historic public safety gains. With record-low crime rates, including a 5.6% drop in major crimes in July 2025, and a rebounding population of 8.48 million, the city has created 410,000 jobs, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Adams highlighted fiscal discipline, with a $115.9 billion budget for 2026, $8.5 billion in reserves, and no tax hikes or layoffs despite challenges like the $8 billion cost of supporting 38,000 migrants since 2022. Initiatives like the “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” plan and universal after-school programs aim to enhance affordability, positioning NYC as a safer, more livable city for families and businesses.
Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks at Annual FCB Meeting
Mayor Eric Adams: First, I really want to thank you, governor, for the last three years and eight months. This state has gone through some great challenges. And the City of New York has reached out to you year after year.
From the beginning, when our subway system was experiencing a high level of unsafety, you started with the subway safety plan. You gave us the support that we needed. A few months , I watched the documentary, The Drop Dead New York. And it was a wake up call for many of us as we went through the fiscal challenges and Washington was not there for us, and we had to figure out the right strategies to ensure that we can move our city forward.
And I am extremely proud of the partnership and your administration, which you have done for the City of New York to ensure not only how we survived some of the major crises that we were facing, but the level of compassion, commitment, and leadership that you displayed. And we cannot thank you enough.
There were many days the team would sit down and we’d try to figure out how were we going to get through the days. And you have been a constant, constant partner. This state and this city owes you a debt of gratitude. So I just want to personally tell you, thank you.
And I want to acknowledge the comptroller of the State of New York, Tom DiNapoli, the comptroller of New York City, Brad Lander, and their private members, Dean Fuleihan, Gary Henning, and William Thompson, Bill good to see you.
And I want to thank the members of my team that’s here, Jacques Jiha. I just don’t know how you did it year after year after year, but you did. And we want to thank you, Randy Mastro, and my amazing chief of staff, Camille Joseph Varlack, that has managed many of these crises during difficult times.
And I want to acknowledge 50 years, think about it, 50 years of this financial control board was put in place. And I am committed to ensure that we continue to have the fiscal stability that this city expects. I appreciate the commitment that FCB staff and private members have made across five decades to ensure that the city’s resources are managed carefully on behalf of our administration. It’s not a bumper sticker, it’s not a slogan, many of you do it for one reason only, you love New York, and we love New York.
From day one of this administration, I was clear that growing prosperity and ensuring our recovery rested on three pillars: protecting public safety, building our economy, and making New York City the best place to raise a family. The data does not lie, our policies have helped us achieve these goals. The city’s economy is strong, our budget is balanced, and through prudent management of the city’s resources and the benefit of a strong economy, we have made investments that promote affordability and keep New Yorkers safe.
We continue to break records across all critical metrics. Most importantly, the city is safer than ever. I want to thank Commissioner Tisch for her commitment and dedication in ensuring that we are moving in the right direction.
If you look at from January 2025 through July 2025, New York City experienced the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history. These historic numbers have helped drive down major crime categories into the seventh consecutive quarter with a 5.6 percent drop in July 2025 compared to the same time last year.
And we are taking illegal guns off the street at record levels. We have also driven down subway crime to a record low. If you remove the pandemic years and ridership has increased since last year. I want to thank the governor for a partnership as I indicated this year in helping to increase law enforcement presence throughout the subway system. In addition, by carefully managing the city’s resources, we remain on pace to having 35,000 uniformed police officers on the streets by fall of 2026.
By keeping the city safer and more livable, our population has rebounded steadily since 2022, growing by 122,000 people to 8.48 million. And by making the city a safer place to work and raise a family, we continue to see job growth. Not only did we regain the jobs lost during the pandemic, but we also broke the city’s jobs record ten times, with 410,000 jobs created under this administration. And in the spirit of friendly competition, we are outpacing the nation and the state in this job growth.
As we continue to grow jobs, the unemployment rate continues to fall. One of the most important things we had to tackle in the city is employment. And in June, it was 4.7 percent, a sixth straight month of improvement, with declines across every demographic. Most importantly, when we came into office, Black unemployment was four times the rate of white. We have decreased Black and brown unemployment by 20 percent in the city.
With all that our incredible city has to offer visitors continue to arrive. Domestic travel has grown and total room nights are occupied, and average daily rates remain strong. Broadway attendance continues to grow and now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. However, international travel has slowed, which is a cause for concern. But Broadway had the best 12 months they’ve had in recorded history.
Other traditional markers of economic stability continue to strengthen. Commercial office vacancies have been a challenge throughout the years. While still above pre-pandemic levels, the vacancy rate peaked last year as the pace of leasing has increased. In fact, we have seen vacancies decline for the fourth time in five quarters.
And housing is expected to steadily grow through the city’s financial plan because we have made the city a better place to live, visit, and raise a family and we have fostered an environment where large and small businesses can prosper. No one should be surprised that our economy is thriving. As a result, tax revenue collections have reached the highest level in the city’s history.
Accordingly, at adoption, projected tax revenues were adjusted upward over the executive budget by $617 million across fiscal year 25 and 26. By carefully managing the city’s finances, we overcame unprecedented and substantial challenges without raising taxes or resorting to layoffs. Without raising taxes or resorting to layoffs.
The most substantial recent challenge has been absorbing costs of caring for 38,000 migrants and asylum seekers who passed through our intake system since the spring of 2022 at a cost to date of more than $8 billion. Through the census has dropped substantially. 90 percent of those in our care went on to the next step of the American dream.
We still have more than 35,000 immigrants while spending $200 million per month over the last year on the emergency response. We appreciate the direct and indirect support the governor has given New York City over the past three years to help us manage this humanitarian crisis.
On top of this unexpected need, we had to meet other critical obligations. This included investing billions of dollars to protect critical programs that face funding cliffs. Due to expiring stimulus dollars, our programs that had traditionally been funded one year at a time, we lost that funding.
Despite these challenges, we kept fiscal year 2025 and 2026 balanced. I want to emphasize that we accomplished this without raising taxes, layoffs, or cutting services, and still had resources to make a nearly $3.8 billion prepayment into fiscal year 2026.
Our success is not an accident. In addition to actively supporting the recovery, we carefully managed the city’s resources by staying focused on core priorities. This includes monitoring economic conditions to ensure that we had the resources to meet needs as they arose, making efficient use of taxpayers’ dollars, and staying prepared for the future.
The fiscal year 2026 budget is $115.9 billion, with manageable out-year gaps of $5 billion, $6.1 billion, and $6 billion in fiscal years 27 through 29, respectively. Strong fiscal management also includes setting aside resources for the future. The fiscal year 2026 adopted budget maintains a record $8.5 billion in reserves, which includes $1.2 billion in the general reserves, $2 billion in the raining day fund, $5 billion in the retiree health benefits trust, and $250 million in the capital’s stabilization reserve.
Independent rater agencies have repeatedly validated our approach in the city’s strong recovery. In July, all four major independent credit ratings held the city’s double A level general obligation bond rating for the 17th consecutive time under this administration. Because we’ve carefully managed the city’s resources, we’re making the city more affordable for working class New Yorkers.
I would like to highlight just a few programs launched over this budget cycle that would benefit New Yorkers for generations to come. And I think you’ll agree that these investments will truly help make this fiscal year’s budget the Best Budget Ever, as we like to call it.
With help from our partners in Albany and the governor’s, we launched our Axe the Tax for the Working Class plan, which for the first time in the city’s history reduces or eliminates city income tax for eligible New Yorkers, putting $63 million back in the pocket of over 582,000 New Yorkers. We continue to break affordable housing records in this year’s celebrated passage of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. The most pro-housing proposal in the city’s history.
We launched a universal after school for all program, which will ultimately bring new, free, quality after school programming to 184,000 students. And to help ease child care costs and provide enrichment for our youngest New Yorkers, we launched a groundbreaking pilot program to provide child care for infants and toddlers through two years of age. It’s successful. This could put New York on the path to become the first major city in the US to provide free, universal child care to low income residents.
We also baselined funding for libraries and cultural organizations. The staffing levels at the parks department are now at an all time high, meaning that our open spaces will be cleaner, safer, and more livable. We’re also doing more to protect New Yorkers’ health with a focus on addressing long ignored mental health needs.
While we ended the fiscal year on a strong note, with the budget passed by all the city councilmembers, we face challenges due to federal actions and threatened funding for programs and infrastructure. Given the scope of the city’s federal grant funding, we’ll not be able to backfill every cut. No state or local government could.
If dollars related to individual grants are clawed back, we’ll make a determination about how to proceed. Along with other impacted cities and states, we will keep fighting in the courts for every dollar that has been awarded to the city.
To conclude, by focusing on public safety and affordability, we have brought strength and stability to the city’s economy. By lifting up an entire class of New Yorkers, we honor the values that this city is based upon and bring security and long-term stability to our economy, budget, and collective future.
As always, I want to thank the hardworking men and women of our city, and I want to thank those who came together to ensure that we would navigate the challenging and turbulent times that we face on January 1st, 2022. We served this city well, and because of that, children and families have a city that we can raise healthy children and families.
Again, governor, I want to personally thank you for your leadership during these most difficult times in our state. Thank you very much.
August 13, 2025 Manhattan, New York
Sources: NYC.gov , Big New York news BigNY.com
