[MUSIC - Marden Hill: Hijack]

Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, Senior Reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian today, on what is a very busy news day. Much more on that SCOTUS decision about Trump's immunity coming up towards the end of the show, but now, we're going local. In a last minute deal, New York City's Mayor and City Council have reached an agreement on a $112.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. Averting potential cuts to some key public services, the deal was announced Friday, restores about $58 million in funding to the city's library systems, restoring that weekend service.

It also allocates $53 million for cultural institutions like museums, and adds $15 million for parks at high-need locations across the city. This budget negotiation process has been described as contentious, which might be a nice way of putting it, with the City Council and Mayor Eric Adams clashing over revenue projections, and necessary cuts. The agreement came just days before the June 30th deadline, capping off a year of public disputes between both sides on various issues.

We're going to dig into the details of this 11th hour budget with Katie Honan, Senior Reporter at The City, where she anchors the Summer & The City newsletter, and co-hosts the podcast, FAQ NYC. Katie, welcome back to The Brian Lehrer Show. Thanks for rolling with us this morning.

Katie Honan: Happy new fiscal year to you, Brigid.

Brigid Bergin: [chuckles] And all who celebrate. Katie, let's start with some of the big takeaways from this budget deal. Can you walk us through some of the top line items?

Katie Honan: Repeating what you said, the big issue, and this was the one with the most advocacy behind it, is the restoration of funding to the three library systems. Obviously, in New York, we have the New York Library, which is Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Brooklyn Library, which is Brooklyn, and the Queens Library, which is obviously Queens. What we have is $58.3 million for these three systems. It breaks down per library system, a little bit equally about-- Manhattan gets $26.2 million, Bronx gets $24.5 million, Staten Island gets $11.06 million.

Queens gets, let's see, this lump sum-- Brooklyn $35 million. Looking down at the numbers, they get this lump sum, but that's part of the breakdown of how much money people get. The main thing that was cut, when this first was cut in both November and January when the mayor made cuts to the budget was weekend service. Libraries that had service on Sunday, which is usually more expensive day to be open because of labor contracts, people working Sundays, and that kind of thing. That was immediately cut. Then, some Saturday service was cut as well.

I know for Queens, in particular, where we both live, if these cuts had gone through, the only places open on Saturdays would be the Central Branch in Jamaica, and the mainstream branch in Flushing, which are two of the largest libraries in Queens. Looking at this effective cut, I mean, also looking at the culturals, $53 million restored, that goes to-- Not libraries, museums, and other cultural organizations within this CIG group that get funding from the city, which can be something like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or any other kind of museum that's on it.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, we're going to get into the details of some of these other funding streams, and some of the other potential cuts. You mentioned the advocacy from the supporters of the libraries. I covered it. My colleague Liz Kim has done some great coverage of it. This became really a very vocal loud group that had certainly the ear of Council members.

What do you think made this advocacy so effective, and helped restore this funding for something that, at one point, as I recall, the mayor was urging the libraries to dip into their endowments, and certain things that just are not possible in terms of how they have to operate.

Katie Honan: Right. I will say the library funding, and what we know as the budget dance. It seems to have happened since I've been a kid. I remember as a kid going to a rally to restore service cuts to my library. It is annual and that's what gets into the baseline funding of what money that is actually permanently put into a budget. What was interesting, I think the issue here is optics, right?

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Katie Honan: We're getting into, I know we have a national election to get through first, but we have the 2025 election, which happens in less than a year. Our listeners may not be thinking about it, but Mayor Eric Adams certainly is thinking about it. I think there was this issue of optics. Do you really going into an election year, want to be the person who cut weekend service at libraries, which historically, and to this day serve a wide population of people?

You serve the people who need the libraries to maybe get a job training book, or they want to learn how to read and write in English, or they want to have resume help. Then, you also have people who just utilize the book service. This is where you go to take a book out, whether it's digitally on Libby, or it's actually in person. There was lots of rallies. There were children at the rallies.

I will say there's two lion mascots. There's the library mascot, and then the cultural lion. I've seen both poor human beings in these very warm suits during the heat of summer. I think there's those optics. Do you really want to be the person who cuts this? I found it interesting that the mayor who always is saying, "I am this working class blue-collar mayor," he seems to be, when it came to these negotiations, he almost seemed to gaslight people in.

"Oh, I didn't tell the libraries to close on Sunday. That was their choice." Even though it was his decision to cut it from the budget.

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Katie Honan: Then, I think him pointing at the endowments, which have really-- They have a lot of restrictions on how the money can be spent. If it's spent to maintain a research library for the New York Public Library. It's not taking away from the individual branches. Yes, this was this narrative of, I know even last year they pushed this idea of, why do the people who work in the library system make so much money?

You could say the same for some of the people in his administration about how much money they make. I think these are C-suite level people, and they work for these large institutions, and that's a normal salary. I know his message now, he was on TV this morning, it's that he restored the cuts, but he made the cuts. I don't know if you can take credit for restoring cuts you initially made, but that's the line he's going for.

Brigid Bergin: [chuckles] Walking a very interesting line. Listeners, your city budget questions are welcome for Katie Honan, who covers politics at the city. She also writes the Summer & the City newsletter, and hosts the podcast FAQ NYC. Our number is 212-433-WNYC. Again, 212-433-9692. You can call or text, do you have a budget question, or maybe are you pretty happy with something that ended up in the budget, or upset with something that didn't? We'd love to hear from you as well.

Again, the number 212-433-9692. Katie, there are lots of critical services that this budget funds, areas like education, housing, public safety, that weren't explicitly mentioned in your article. Are there any significant changes, or maintaining cuts in these sectors?

Katie Honan: Yes, I think going to education, and this is our colleagues at Chalkbeat have written really great stories on this in breaking down the funds, because it can get a little confusing. I'm not very good at math, which is maybe why I became a journalist. Understanding the cuts and the restorations, and the breakdown here is with pre-K and 3-K, they're only restoring about $20 million to 3-K and pre-K from some of the previous cuts.

There's still $150 million in reductions. Obviously, the budget grows every year because city has a charter mandate to spend what it takes in. I think some people see a budget going up every year, and they think it's maybe bad, but I think it just means there's more money coming in to the city. Not that I think that that's what it is. You have to spend what comes in, and there's obligations to that.

Looking at pre-K and 3-K, I know that one of-- Some of the money was actually, money to make sure that there are seats for the maybe around 1,700 people who were waitlisted. The mayor insisted that no one was waitlisted, but there were plenty of families who did not receive 3-K and pre-K seats for their kids. This is where it gets funny math on where the money is going.

Parks is a big deal. There was $15 million restored for what's known as the second shift, which are staffers deployed to 100 hotspots in 60 parks. You can think of high traffic areas and large parks like Prospect Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Van Cortlandt Park, places that you know there's lots of trash, and there's lots of maintenance required. The other significant thing that's happening with parks is, they're lifting hiring freeze, which has been in place for months.

There's been a lot of empty jobs listing, and now they can lift it, and actually start hiring again, which will also meet some of the need. It also restores 4.1 million in Urban Park Rangers and 2.6 million for the Green Thumb Program. That being said, there are still some programs that were cut, and there were some initiatives that were cut.

You may be restoring in one area, but there's other areas that are not getting the same full restoration. Also, we have to keep in mind, we receive significant federal money due to COVID, and that is sunsetting, which is resulting in some of these changes.

Brigid Bergin: Let's talk for a moment about these cultural institutions that you mentioned, $53 million. You mentioned the Met, but what are some of the other museums, or cultural organizations that are set to benefit from this funding, and how does it compare to the pre-cut budgets they were facing?

Katie Honan: It's known as the Cultural Institutions Group, CIG, and that's the Department of Cultural Affairs list of 34 members that are on city-owned property, and receive significant capital and operating support from the city to meet those needs. The full list, let's do-- We'll do Manhattan. We have the Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, El Museo del Barrio, Museum of the City of New York in Queens, you have Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Flushing Town Hall, MoMA PS1, the Hall of Science, Botanical Garden. With this money is, there was a lot of money being cut from it.

Obviously, a lot of these places are in buildings that need significant capital support. I haven't gone through the full capital budget yet. It was not up the last time I checked, so I'm not able to see how much money is going for that, but just the maintenance and programming, a lot of these organizations, I think of something like Flushing Town Hall that has significant programming, whether it's live jazz music, or cultural talks and information for younger people to learn about, not just Queens' history, but the city's history.

Obviously, you look at a place like the Met. The Met has a huge endowment, a private dollar, but a lot of the outer borough museums don't. A lot of them don't have as much money as other places. You could say the same about parks. Central Park is a huge private endowment. They're obligated to raise a certain amount of money based off how much the city gives.

To compare it to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which does not have the same endowment, it's different. There's always going to be disparity in where money is coming, but I guess that's the point of the CIG, which is to ensure that there's more money from the city going to these operations. They fought to have some of this money restored, and it's $53 million.

The other thing to look at, too, is what's known as a Schedule C budget, which is how much money each Council member can dole out in their district. A lot of the money goes through that as well. We have to go through each person's list, and see how much it could fund something as specific as class trips to the Hall of Science, or maybe a specific exhibit somewhere. This is what that money goes towards.

Brigid Bergin: If you're just joining us, I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian Lehrer. My guest is Katie Honan, who covers politics at the City. We are trying to unpack this new 2025 fiscal year budget for the City, $112 billion. It just passed yesterday at the Council. The deal was announced Friday, but a lot of details are still, I think, murky because not all the documents are available.

If you have questions for Katie about the budget, or if you want to shout out something that you know made it, or something that didn't, give us a call. The number is 212-433-9692. Let's go to Chris in Woodside. Chris, thanks so much for calling.

Chris: Hi. How are you doing today? Thank you for taking my call. I'm calling, specifically. regarding what has been allocated to, for instance, the Department of Buildings.

I'm a building manager in Woodside, and we have a building that's been waiting for an elevator inspection for over two months now for the inspection for final approval for a modernization.

We can't use the elevator until the inspection comes. Everybody has been telling me that literally there's been one inspector working the entirety of Queens. The reason was because the original freeze of all the department's budget. Is there anything about allocation to funding very specific things like an elevator inspectors [chuckles] in Queens, or just general DOB stuff?

Brigid Bergin: Chris, thanks so much for your question. Katie, I know that you're just pouring through some of these documents, but any intel on how the Department of Buildings fared in this latest budget?

Katie Honan: I'm Ctrl+F'ing like crazy on the document, but, yes, I think that speaks, I think, to what was a hiring freeze. It takes a while. I hear from city employees all the time who speak to me. They just come to me with concerns. There could be a job that's listed, and it could take, in some cases, months to get hired. I'd have to go through the mayor's management report to figure out how many inspectors there are, but looking at the DOB's budget, a lot of the money is baseline from previous, and looking at other than personal services and sustainability personal services, it looks about the same as last year, but I think it speaks to that hiring freeze.

I mean, the mayor wouldn't call it a hiring freeze, but whatever they call it, it is a hiring freeze, in terms of getting enough inspectors. I can follow up on that to try to see how many inspectors are in each borough. There's borough commanders, and there's borough directors who oversee this. I would be surprised if there's just one inspector in the borough of Queens, given how it's physically the largest borough. I could reach out and try to figure out. Chris, you can always email me, khonan@thecity.nyc, if you have any other further questions.

Brigid Bergin: Chris, thanks for your call. We always love to have a reporter live reporting on the air, Katie. Let's talk for a moment about the difference between the Council's view of the city's finances. and the mayor's view. Council finance experts thought some of the mayor's cuts, many of the mayor's cuts, were unnecessary. What were they arguing, and how does it align, or conflict with the mayor's fiscal strategy, and then this ultimate agreement that they reached?

Katie Honan: Both sides had very different views of the city's finances. When these cuts from the January budget were announced, the Council said, "We have the money." The mayor, for whatever reason, is saying that they don't. There's been a discrepancy between the Office of Management and Budget and the Council Finance Division.

I'd say the Council of Finance Division's projections are more in line with what IBO has said, which is the Independent Budget Office, and other budget wonks, for lack of a better term, of how the city's tax projections are. It's not completely great when you look at how much money we get from commercial real estate, and what could be a real bubble bursting of post-COVID, all these commercial buildings people are not returning to.

Obviously, you have increased spending from the asylum-seeker crisis, but I think the big thing was the federal COVID dollar sunsetting. You had to change with that. We've asked the mayor in multiple ways, we, I mean, collectively as reporters, of how do you square away balancing a budget and agreeing on a budget when the two sides don't ultimately agree to how much money is there?

Now, for the second year in a row, it seems the Council's budget projections were the correct ones, looking at the budget restorations and the programs that were restored. What they always say, and it's true, is the budget, it's not like it's over. We're in a new fiscal year today, but it is a living document. It changes. There's modifications in November and in January, and then the mayor releases the executive budget in April.

There's this constant cycle of negotiations and discussions and changes, and these projections altered based on-- It's New York, and anything can happen, and things could change really quickly. The Council's budget projections have been the ones that turned out to be correct.

Brigid Bergin: Let's go to Lacy in Queens. Lacy, thanks for calling.

Lacy: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm calling on behalf of early childhood educators. We've heard so much in the news around 3-K funding, and the seats that are available, not available for families across the city. What I wanted to bring some focus to was around the curriculum that has been adopted this past school year. The Division of Early Childhood has spent millions and millions of dollars on this one curriculum, Teaching Strategies GOLD, or actually, it's Creative Curriculum, but there's an assessment with-- Long story short, people have been trying to get answers to exactly how much money has been spent on this curriculum.

We believe it's going through private equity, or lining pockets of people who are maybe not best suited to inform decisions about what's appropriate for kids across New York City, and teachers have been struggling in adopting this curriculum, and so on. I guess my question is, in terms of these budget decisions, I know this is a very nuanced particular thing, but how can folks who are concerned about how money is being spent on things related to curriculum or education, how can we get answers to questions related to what's going on, and is the funding for the pre-K and 3-K programming being used in the most effective way?

Brigid Bergin: Lacy, thanks so much for that call and that question. Katie, I know that education reporting is its own universe, but I also know that you have lots of answers for tough questions. Any advice for Lacy about how to track down where pre-K program funding is going?

Katie Honan: That's a great question. In the program or the curriculum she's talking about is called Creative Curriculum, and this was last spring. In 2023, it was instituted at more than 8,000 classrooms, whether it's 3-K and pre-K in a church or in a public school. I think the DOE budget document sometimes will really reveal some information on where the money is going, but it's hard because stuff does get buried.

One thing I would recommend, if you think that there's a specific contract, the Comptroller's office keeps something called Checkbook NYC, which is a way that I and other reporters use to see what you have a contract with. You can maybe look up Creative Curriculum. It's a little slow right now, or else I'd check it myself, and see just how much money is being allocated.

Then, if you can see by fiscal year, it's however many millions of dollars based on how much money is allocated, then you can break it out that way. I will say, that contract, I think there was a lot of reporting around COVID and asylum-seeker emergency contracts, which bypass that, that was one of the concerns, but the Comptroller's office does, it's called Checkbook NYC. It is--

Brigid Bergin: Great resource.

Katie Honan: I wouldn't call it easy to navigate. [chuckles] It's a great resource. I wouldn't say it's easy to navigate, but it's not the most difficult way because, again, a lot of these budget documents, they're thousands and thousands of pages, and things are buried under other than personal services, or this, or whatever they're listed as, but I would-- Lacy, I would check Checkbook, and maybe they have it there.

Brigid Bergin: Katie--

Katie Honan: Then, I think some of these agencies aren't on Checkbook too. It creates a--

Brigid Bergin: A headache.

Katie Honan: Yes.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, I want to pick up a little bit on this idea of the tension between the Council and the mayor's office in this budget negotiation, and how this particular negotiation, and this particular budget reflects maybe an evolution of this body. I think in previous years, we've seen the Council take some pretty big hits. We've seen maybe some more divisions within the body itself.

As I understand, I think only three members voted against the budget. You can fact-check me on that. Just talk about what you think this budget tells us about how the Council is flexing some of its muscle when working with the mayor's office, given that the way our city government is structured, the mayor has a lot of power.

Katie Honan: Yes. If we go back to the first budget that was negotiated in 2022, it was early handshake. I forget, it was mid-June. Everyone seemed happy. Then, what came out after was there was actually significant cuts to education. The Council, if you remember, tried to then re-vote on the budget, which I didn't know you were allowed to do, and I think it might have been a little a little embarrassing for this 51-member body to not have realized that this is what they were agreeing to.

Coming into the next year's budget in 2023, I know Speaker Adrienne Adams told me, I did a story with her, where she said, now, they knew who they were working with. I think there was a lot less trust with OMB and the mayor's side on this budget. We saw it last year in a very tense handshake. I think this year, based on the number of people who voted against it, which wasn't as much as last year, I think it seemed to be, at least in the messaging, that there was a lot more inclusion from all the members in how this budget was negotiated.

If we look the last year of mayor and Council relations, you've had bills he doesn't agree with that he vetoes. Then, you have the Council overwhelmingly voting to override his vetoes. It's happened more than once. It's not a total leap to say that there's been some tension between the two occupants of City Hall, a building I'm in right now, so I joke it's the tensions down the hall, but this is common, I guess, when you have this sort of legislation-- This is how you have legislative government, where a mayor is very, very powerful.

I'll also say the mayor has done this Charter Review Commission, and one of the things that they've suggested is actually what seems to be limiting some role of the Council when it comes to legislation that they pass that has to do with public safety to adding another hearing, and creating more backstops, because the too many-- How many stops? Not too many stops.

Oh, they might argue it's too many stops, but how many stops bill the mayor was really opposed to it, the police department was really opposed to it, but the Council said, "This is just another way to have more oversight over a police department." They're at odds over certain things, and I know there's been some effort from the mayor to be more involved in the laws coming out of the City Council.

Brigid Bergin: You brought up the NYPD, what kind of budget situation are we seeing for them next year? This is a mayor who has made public safety really the cornerstone of his administration, often says public safety is the precursor to prosperity. What is his administration doing to support the NYPD, and was that among the reasons why we saw some of those Council members vote against the budget?

Katie Honan: It was partly. The mayor, he's not going to make cuts to the PD. I know there's been some concern with advocates of what's known as-- They're calling New York City's Cop City. It's this large training facility that will have multiple agencies training, so within the police department. I guess the police budget is around $12 billion, and the mayor has said, obviously, public safety is a precursor to prosperity. That's the phrase he uses a lot.

The other thing what you don't see in this budget is the additional police overtime that usually gets added. That's one department that you have to look at their budget a lot, because there's changes throughout the year based on overtime. He had initially made some cuts during his November and January cuts to the number of police classes, but they've mostly all been restored. These are the spending that happens with public safety and police. You're not going to see many changes.

I think there have been questions about when you look at how much spending the city makes for police helicopters, or its new drone program, how much money is actually going into it, but the total budget, it's one of the highest. Department of Education is high. Obviously it has a nearly one million student population, so there are some city agencies and departments that receive a lot of money, and the NYPD is always near the top.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, looking ahead, do you see any potential challenges or issues in implementing this budget, especially, given the contentious nature of the negotiations, and how different the Council and the mayor's financial outlooks were during those negotiations?

Katie Honan: I think it'll be a little quiet this summer, but once we get into the fall when you start doing the budget modifications, we'll see if there are any changes there, and any issues. Again, I think budgets get readjusted all the time. There's the projected, and then the actual, and how much is actually spent. As I mentioned earlier, there's always increases to the PD based on overtime. If it's a very busy summer, it's going to go up, but this has been voted through with only three no votes, which was low compared to last year.

The way that the budget works is, even if, and it hasn't happened in recent memory, but even if a budget isn't voted on by the July 1st deadline, or I guess 12:01 AM on July 1st, things continue. I know up, we're used to the state budget, where you have weeks and weeks of a budget delay. We don't see that in the city, but it's really a huge-- It's not like everything stops.

If you were supposed to get paid by the city, you're going to get paid, even if it hadn't been voted on, but I know in the fall we'll see some adjustments, and then there might be some issues there.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, I have a listener who texts, "How much money for public health?"

Katie Honan: Oh, boy. Now, I got to go back to Ctrl+F. I know there were some concerns about the restoration of certain HIV and AIDS programs, but I think within public health too, you have, obviously, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, but then if you want to think of how much money Health and Hospitals Corporation gets, there's a lot of ways to look at public health.

I don't have the number right away, I apologize, but this is looking at how much-- I think also you do breakdown in services. A lot of programs could be funded by an individual Council member, but there were reductions, and I think there was lots of reporting based on, let's see, public health, I want to say around $2 billion, which is more, but obviously, the budget goes up, but this was broken down in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, epidemiology, health administration, early intervention, and there's going to be some changes there, if you break it down that way.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, you mentioned that the mayor is doing a bit of a victory lap this morning. He's had a lot of media hits talking about what this new budget contains. Given how contentious the negotiations were, and the pushback that he himself had to some of the items that were ultimately restored, what do you think he's trying to accomplish, and what has been his message that you've heard so far today?

Katie Honan: It is a victory lap. I think the mayor was very offended by any implication that he and Speaker Adrienne Adams were-- [crosstalk]

Brigid Bergin: Not going to land the plane?

Katie Honan: [chuckles] Land the plane. I say that Miracle on the Hudson landed too, but it didn't really land where you wanted it to. I don't know where they were-- The "land the plane" metaphor, the Speaker is a former flight attendant, so she alluded to a lot of turbulence. I think that seems to be a more realistic view of planes.

Brigid Bergin: Hey, Katie, just, just for our listeners who unlike us weren't tuning into that handshake--

Katie Honan: People with a life.

Brigid Bergin: Yes, exactly. Just explain what that plane reference was, and how it came to play right up into the last minute of the budget deal, and the handshake.

Katie Honan: The mayor often said, "We're going to land the plane. We're going to land the plane. You guys keep asking me if there's any issues. No, we're going to land the plane," so he brought a little miniature plane to the handshake. Again, the Speaker, she got into the plane analogies as well, but she discussed some of the turbulence in the circling, if anyone's been on a plane lately, it's not always the easiest way to get around, there's lots of bumps. That was his metaphor, but I think his message is he says he's going to deliver for the city.

I know he's at a rally right now at the Inwood Public Library, another victory budget rally. One quote a colleague sent is, "I don't mind being the villain of the city that I love." We'll let our listeners-- It feels very comic booky to me, but that is the message he-- When he's made these cuts, he said, "I'm sorry we have to make these cuts, but I'm just doing this for the benefit of the city, and I'm in charge."

His reversal on-- He proposed these cuts, and now do largely in part to advocacy from New Yorkers and advocacy from the City Council, the cuts have been restored, and he's taking the victory lap on that. Again, it's a lot to unpack.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, we have an-- Excuse me, another listener who texts. "Have you talked about how CUNY cuts remain?" I know that we're basically giving you a budget pop quiz here since this is a massive document, and a massive budget, but have you had a chance to look at the hit to CUNY in the budget, and where they stand, now that there's a deal?

Katie Honan: Well, CUNY obviously also gets some state funding as well, but I know one of the things that they were highlighting, both the Council and the mayor, was funding for programs like CUNY ACE, CUNY STEM, and they also noted that they're helping CUNY adjust to declining enrollment. I think if there are cuts, we'll look at that. They did this with the Department of Education, where if there are fewer students, they would cut the budget, but maybe there's reasons for that.

I haven't done the year-to-year analysis of CUNY, but I do know that they have significant capital needs that are not being met by the city, and they have significant-- Just funding needs. I'd have to look at that specifically. I found it interesting that the mayor who speaks often, and it's part of his election mantra, is that he is working class, and he's from working-class values, and working-class roots, but seems that he attacks both CUNY, and the city's public libraries, which to me are two pillars of working-class New Yorkers. He seems to attack CUNY.

It seems rooted in part to him getting booed at CUNY Law School's graduation last year, which he still talks about. I find that interesting, and I'll have to later on go through the full analysis of the CUNY breakdown, both the CUNY system overall, and then each of the CUNY colleges, and to see how much funding is there. They were touting funding for CUNY ACE, CUNY STEM, CUNY ACE.

Some of these programs allow people to adult education finish their degrees, if they had to drop out for any kind of reason, and a Brooklyn Recovery Corps at Medgar Evers College. I think, again, this is his-- Seeing how much funding is actually going to CUNY and the actual student services, and especially the capital needs. I know colleges around the city need significant repairs that are just not getting done.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, before I let you go, we have to take a minute on the politics of all of this. Certainly, this is a big step for the mayor and the City Council, a legally mandated required one to have a balanced city budget. Now, presumably, this means more focus on that 2025 election you mentioned. What are you looking for this summer, and were there any reactions from some of these people who are considering a challenge to the mayor that stood out to you in the past few days?

Katie Honan: Yes, State Senator Jessica Ramos from Queens put out a budget statement, which I found-- I go, "Oh, okay, that's interesting." I'm trying to see. Zellnor Myrie, I know might have put something out. I will say Senator Ramos has not announced anything, but she's been rumored to put this out. Again, a lot of the statements that come out, I will say, State Senator Ramos was critical of the budget.

Let's see what Zellnor Myrie said in terms of that. He and Scott Stringer are some of the people who've announced, and other people, names being floated about. Let's see what he said. Yes, he was critical of the mayor, and he said that he should be more laser-focused on making our city more livable, and more affordable. Instead, his mismanagement and budget cuts are making it harder for families in every way.

I think it seems like a good message. It was part of his announcement video. We're trying to make the city work for, particularly, families, and we look at the data, the census data on how many young people have left the city over the last four years. It means families are leaving. It means things are just not easy for them. Not that they're easy, but it's that they're particularly hard to raise a family in New York City.

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Katie Honan: That's been one of his core election, although he has not officially announced, but the exploratory election talk. That's been a focus. We're going to get into it. I think between now and next June, everything that this mayor does, is going to be put up through a lens of reelection, both for just regular New Yorkers, for the reporters who cover him, and then also just for people who are going to officially informally run against him.

Brigid Bergin: We are going to have to leave it there for now. My guest has been Katie Honan, Senior Reporter at The City, where she anchors the Summer & The City newsletter, and co-hosts the podcast, FAQ NYC. Katie, thank you so much.

Katie Honan: Thank you, Brigid.

 

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