The budget game may be over, but City Hall still has the final deal on its mind. 

This year’s $112 billion budget included many restorations for things like libraries, education and cultural institutions. 

What You Need To Know

  • Last Friday, Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council came to a budget deal. The Fiscal Year 2025 budget came in at $112 billion 

  • The new budget included many restorations, which Adams said on Tuesday were also being championed by his administration 

  • Adams has started going on a somewhat victory tour to celebrate the new budget, starting with the full restoration of seven-day service at libraries

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday said his administration was fighting just as hard for the money as the City Council. 

“All the noise out there didn’t know what was going on internally,” said the mayor. “Chancellor Banks was fighting hard to say, ‘How do we get this done and land the plane?’” 

At the mayor’s weekly press briefing, top officials in the Adams administration also noted that this year’s budget cycle was a collaborative effort. 

“It wasn’t a fight of restoration. We negotiated what needed to be restored,” Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief advisor to the mayor, said. “It’s a matter of perspective. To them, they pushed for those restorations. We wanted the same restorations. But again, we did not know what lay ahead.” 

Adams implemented a series of cuts starting last year amid the sun setting of federal COVID dollars and the ongoing migrant crisis.

“I’m creating a fiscally sound city so no matter what the uncertainties are, if it’s another COVID, if it’s another migrant [crisis], this or that, that we can still run as a city,” the mayor said.

The administration said it needed to close a $7 billion gap by the summer and implemented reductions. 

Adams defended the financial decisions on Tuesday. 

“We take a more conservative approach because we can’t get it wrong, number one. Number two, we’re seeing things others aren’t seeing,” he said. “We’re going to always be the bad guys. We got that. And we know that’s the price of leadership.”

The mayor since has been on a celebration tour to tout the funding included in the final budget. A move that contrasts with his initial cuts. 

“I don’t care who gets the credit of the victory. How the sausage is made is not important. Do people have the vegan sausage to eat? It is more important to me,” the mayor said.  

Separately, Adams also weighed in on President Joe Biden’s weak debate performance, saying he is a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention next month and plans to vote for Biden if he needs to cast a ballot. 

“People want to take the worst day of your life and define your life. I know what the last couple of years have been. There’s a reason I said I was the Biden of Brooklyn because I just think working-class people are authentic,” Adams said. “Authentic leaders are not perfect.”

Adams said that Biden should be the one to determine if he stays on the ballot for the November general election.