New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled his Fiscal Year 2027 executive budget on Tuesday: a $124.7 billion spending plan that closes a historic deficit inherited from his predecessor without raising property taxes, slashing services, or raiding the city’s reserves.
Mamdani has a name for what he inherited: the “Adams Budget Crisis.”
The gaps left behind by former Mayor Eric Adams totaled more than $12 billion—more than double what had been publicly projected just months earlier, and worse than anything New York City faced during the Great Recession, Mamdani said Tuesday at a press conference at City Hall.
“This crisis has a name and a chief architect… Mayor Adams chose political self-preservation over fiscal responsibility,” Mamdani said. “This is not just bad governance. It is negligence.”
On Tuesday, Mamdani made clear that unlike some of his predecessors, his answer to budget issues is not cutting public services. It’s taxing the rich.
Billionaires, pay up
The centerpiece of the revenue side is the pied-à-terre tax, the first of its kind in state history, proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and secured in her proposed state budget. It targets non-resident New Yorkers who own second homes worth more than $5 million and is expected to generate $500 million annually.
“No longer will billionaires be able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property here without giving back to the city,” Mamdani said.
The mayor’s office will partner with the City Council to phase down an unincorporated business tax credit that overwhelmingly benefits millionaires, raising an additional $68 million per year.
How the gap gets closed
The deficit did not close on tax revenue alone. Here’s the breakdown:
- ~$8 billion in new state support over two years, including $1.5 billion in direct aid secured through Hochul’s budget, with the remainder coming through state authorizations of savings measures and new revenues
- $1.47 billion in agency savings, led by newly appointed Chief Savings Officers at every city agency—a first
- $1.64 billion saved in FY27 through pension restructuring, with no impact on retiree benefits
- $519 million in FY27 through reforms to the city FEPS rental assistance program
- $149 million annually by addressing the root causes of special education “due process” litigation instead of just paying settlements
What New Yorkers will get
Mamdani framed the budget not only as a crisis response, but also as a foundation for his broader affordability agenda. His budget includes:
- Free childcare for two- and three-year-olds, backed by a historic $1.2 billion state investment
- 1,000 new K-12 teachers and $122 million to hire them
- $5.6 billion for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)—the most city capital dedicated to public housing in recent decades
- $4 billion in additional affordable housing capital over five years
- Libraries, parks, and cultural institutions will be fully funded and won’t see services cut, ending what Mamdani called the “budget dance”—the annual scramble for dollars that has defined city budgeting for years.
The bigger picture
The state budget, which Hochul announced last week, set the table for Tuesday.
The pied-à-terre tax was already baked into that deal, and the $1.5 billion in direct city aid was part of that agreement—though Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie cautioned last week that several items remained unresolved in the budget.
Advocates have noted the pied-à-terre tax alone only fills about 10% of NYC’s deficit, and some have pushed for more aggressive progressive revenue. But Mamdani cast today as a beginning.
“For too long, New Yorkers have been told that ambition must give way to austerity,” he said. “This budget proves otherwise.”
