The financial struggles of New York City caused by the coronavirus pandemic felt like a distant memory Wednesday as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced an agreement on a $98.7 billion budget, the biggest in the city’s history.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Wednesday announced an agreement on a $98.7 billion “recovery budget” for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins Thursday.



The budget, the final one for both de Blasio and Johnson as they reach term limits, was $100 million more than the executive budget that the mayor unveiled in April, flush with billions in federal aid that helped the city significantly increase spending. The mayor and speaker announced it from City Hall with the traditional “budget handshake” that they skipped last year as COVID-19 raged through the city.

New York City’s spending plan for the next fiscal year was set in stone by the pounding of the gavel and a lopsided 39-6 vote on Wednesday, delivering the city a historically large budget that leaders hope will boost the city’s COVID recovery.

The late afternoon vote came after Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson proudly announced a deal on the city’s largest-ever budget, a $98.7 billion behemoth that drew a sharp contrast to the mid-pandemic spending plan that passed narrowly a year ago.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council are racing against the Wednesday night deadline, negotiating the budget before the fiscal year closes. As reported by Crain’s NY, as they come towards the end of negotiations, experts say the number for next year’s budget will be close to $100 billion. Fiscal experts, however, are worried that the spending is based on expectations from past growth which may not be accurate, and an influx in federal spending which will not last indefinitely. “Federal money is not recurring and is being used to fund programs permanently,” said Ana Champney, director of city studies at the Citizens Budget Commission.

As Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council close in on a $100 billion budget for next year's budget, fiscal experts warn the spending is built on a fragile foundation of past growth and an influx of federal spending that may not last into the future.

“Federal money is not recurring and is being used to fund programs permanently,” said Ana Champney, director of city studies at the Citizens Budget Commission. “And then there’s uncertainty on what the rate of property tax revenue will be.”

As Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council close in on a $100 billion budget for next year's budget, fiscal experts warn the spending is built on a fragile foundation of past growth and an influx of federal spending that may not last into the future.

“Federal money is not recurring and is being used to fund programs permanently,” said Ana Champney, director of city studies at the Citizens Budget Commission. “And then there’s uncertainty on what the rate of property tax revenue will be.”

The NYPD is on track to spend $162 million over its planned budget on officer and civilian overtime this fiscal year by its end on June 30.

Two-hundred sixty-eight million in overtime for the NYPD was budgeted for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

NYC Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough Presidents on the Line

New infrastructure -- and particularly transportation infrastructure -- should be climate change resistant, value previously marginalized urban neighborhoods and take into consideration changing traffic patterns, according to a panel of real estate and urban development specialists based in the greater New York City metropolitan area. If these basic tenets are taken into account, any infrastructure bill passed by Congress and President Joe Biden should provide some excellent real estate investment opportunities, they said last week at an iGlobal Forum webinar titled: The Biden Infrastructure Plan and Its Impact on the U.S. Real Estate Industry: Seizing Opportunities, Navigating Risk.

As the city’s economy has slowly reopened, the media, thought leaders, elected officials and business owners have opined extensively on the plight of small businesses. It is widely agreed that small businesses suffered tremendously as a result of pandemic restrictions. Many positive steps were taken to attempt to offset both lost revenue and costs of doing business.

Despite dire predictions at the beginning of the pandemic, New York’s coffers are flush with federal aid and the reapings of a better than expected economic recovery. Similarly, New Jersey has an unexpected $10.1 billion budget surplus.

As the mayoral race heads into its final days, three leading Democratic candidates are offering sharply contrasting visions of how they’d manage New York’s growing government.

Progressive Maya Wiley is touting a massive expansion of city services, while moderates Eric Adams and Kathryn Garcia are promoting new programs that would seek to make existing agencies more efficient.