The City Council reiterated Tuesday its tax revenue projections for the remainder of this year and next year will surpass a billion dollars, reigniting efforts among several councilmembers to push to restore budget cuts.

Leading this effort is Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, chair of the council’s finance committee, who is insisting on restoring cuts made to multiple sectors, such as education, cultural affairs, libraries, parks and recreation, aging and sanitation.

"We're not asking for rainbows and unicorns here, right. We're asking for the garbage to get picked up. We're asking to restore money to early childhood education, to our libraries, to CUNY, to our parks," said Brannan during an appearance on “Mornings On 1” Thursday. "This is very basic stuff that the council is fighting for that. I don't know why we're being met with such resistance, especially when the money is there."

Mayor Eric Adams last month proposal a $111.6 billion budget that restored some cuts previously made to Police Academy class and 3-K programs. He later defended his budget during an appearance on “Mornings On 1,” saying there was no more room to restore cuts as “all of us are dealing with the financial crisis.”

Brannan and the City Council, however, have stressed that the mayor left over $1 billion in tax revenue on the table.

Brannan on Thursday said that was also a consensus among economic forecasters, saying “55 out of 66 forecasters” are in agreement with the City Council’s projections. He also pointed to a recent report by the state comptroller that indicated tourism revenue has even begun to surpass pre-COVID levels.

The councilman said the City Council will continue to push for cuts to be fully restored before looking to make any more cuts to funding.

"There's been so many cuts over the past two years, that we're just trying to get back to where we were. Forget about adding [more cuts] right, we want to get back to zero and then go from there,” Brannan said.

With three weeks of hearings and more than 80 hours of testimony now over, the Council now pivots toward negotiations with the Adams administration.

“Now we actually go into the room and start negotiating and by the end of June we have to pass a budget,” he said.

The 2025-26 fiscal year starts July 1.