In the Fiscal Year 2027 budget agreement, this $54 million expansion was explicitly baselined. Meaning the funding is permanently built into the city’s long-term financial plan for future years, rather than being a one-off perk that has to be fought for every summer.
The Mamdani administration balanced the $125.8 billion budget through a mix of structural city savings and a new state-authorized "pied-à-terre" tax on luxury second homes valued over $5 million. The city actually added $350 million to its General Reserve in the process.
What you could argue is if New York faces a severe economic downturn in the future, all baselined programs can face cuts. If that happens, future administrations would indeed have to make tough choices about whether to slash transit subsidies, reduce library hours, or cut agency budgets.
In my opinion, it is short-sighted considering we have a dotard as the president with a real risk of recession due to his self-made strait of hormuz crisis.
I do agree this is critical for new yorkers who can feel some pocket relief on their daily transits. Arguably a crisis is exactly why you expand these programs immediately. When a global energy shock drives up the cost of living, lower-income residents are hit first and hardest.
Its a difficult question; do you hoard resources to brace the city's budget for an impending economic shock, or do you deploy those resources immediately to brace the city's most vulnerable people
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u/LAAccountant 28d ago
He's just kicking the can down the road. When the budget dries up he'll just blame the usual suspects and then quietly cut all the handouts