Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first executive budget proposal pulls off what seems to be a fiscal miracle by closing what in December was projected to be a huge $12 billion budget gap without raising property taxes, dipping into reserves or cutting services.

But the budget is hardly a symbol of fiscal rectitude. It relies on billions of dollars in one-shot or short-term money to fund permanent programs, it stretches out pension payments so the next generation will pay for the retirements of present-day workers and it projects a $7 billion deficit for the 2028 fiscal year that will need to be closed just one year from now.

One sign of the problem: The mayor did not mention the deficits in future budgets in his presentation Tuesday of the $124.7 billion budget. Fiscal experts say they do not remember a time when a mayor didn’t acknowledge future year problems.

“Unlike pickles, budget balancing strategies aren’t good when they are half sour,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

The executive budget is the penultimate step in the city’s budget process and kicks off negotiations with the City Council with a final budget agreement due by June 30. 

Historically, the Council adds money to the budget, usually about $500 million each year, but the mayor appears to be trying to avoid that by increasing money for parks, libraries and CUNY, which are usually the top of the council’s priority list.

The mayor was able to close the budget deficit because Gov. Kathy Hochul both provided billions of dollars in additional funds — including authorizing a new pied-à-terre tax  on luxury second homes — and delayed a costly mandate for the city to reduce class sizes.

Much of the money is short-term. 

For example, the governor has promised $1.6 billion for only the first two years of the rollout of Pre-K for three-year-olds and expansion of the slots for four-year-olds. There is no money for future years when the program is expected to be growing rapidly.

Other so-called one-shots — meaning revenue for only one year is being used to support spending that is expected to continue in the future — include something called budget accruals.

The administration says it’s found $1.2 billion in money the city had set aside to pay old expenses that it won’t need to use for that purpose. The money will be used in 2027 to balance the budget — but it won’t be available in future years.

One-shots amount to $2.8 billion, Comptroller Mark Levine estimates, one major factor in why the budget deficit for the 2028 fiscal year is still so large.

The savings for delaying pension payments is particularly egregious for people who care about best budget practices. Unlike the state, whose pension system is fully funded because it makes the required payments each year, the city needs to deposit extra money each year to make up for years when it did not fully meet its obligations.

The pension deal agreed to by the mayor and the governor evens out volatile annual payments to allow more predictable budgeting. But it also stretches those extra payments out into the future, saving $2.3 billion in next year’s budget.

“Extending the amortization period for pension payments creates a debt that’s more expensive than muni bonds,” William Glasgall, an expert in public finances at the Volcker Alliance, said, referring to municipal bonds. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for today’s savings well into the 2030s.

What this budget does by relying on short-term fixes is set up yet another push for the mayor’s campaign promises to tax the rich next year, after the mid-term elections. 

Hochul is up for reelection in November, while the local impact of President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill will really start hitting home in 2027.

“We have known ever since the child care funding announcement that we will need future revenues,” said Emily Eisner, interim director of the progressive Fiscal Policy Institute, which has been aggressively supporting tax increases. “The governor is interested in avoiding taxes in a significant way before November but they are more likely after the election, especially since the major strains from the One Big Beautiful Bill don’t hit until next year.”

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani dropped his threat to hike property taxes as a way to close the budget gap after Gov. Kathy Hochul promised additional aid for his $124.5 billion spending plan.

The city budget includes an additional $4 billion in support to close the gap, totaling nearly $8 billion over two years.

That money is through $352 million in direct aid, $3.2 billion from programs that require state authorization and $500 million in new revenue — enough to close the $12 billion budget gap for the next two fiscal years that Mamdani inherited from his predecessor.

“I am proud to announce that we have closed the gap entirely, down to zero,” the mayor said at a press conference Tuesday.

“It hasn’t been easy but we have balanced the budget and we have done so without placing the burden on the backs of working New Yorkers.”

The mayor thanked Hochul, State Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Assembly Majority Carl Heastie and Council Speaker Julie Menin for their help and partnership, along with “the movement that carried us to City Hall.”

The budget, he said, “is evidence of a new era of government in our city, one that can balance both ambition and fiscal responsibility.”

The mayor’s budget manages to close a $5.6 billion shortfall for this fiscal year and an estimated $7 billion gap for next year without new income taxes for the wealthy and for corporations that he had demanded from Albany, and without raiding the city’s financial reserves. 

Jabs at the Wealthy

But Mamdani said they are taxing the rich through other changes, like a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes that is estimated to bring in $500 million in new revenue. 

There is also a proposal to reduce the Unincorporated Business Tax credit, known as UBT, which he noted mostly benefits millionaires. Reducing the tax credit will bring in an estimated $68 million, according to the mayor. 

“These are common sense measures,” he said. “Working New Yorkers cannot be asked to sacrifice as we sit in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”

Pension Moves

Other revenue and savings comes from the state taking over expenses that shifted to the city years ago, like line of duty death benefits for families of first responders killed on the job, saving the city $202 million. There’s also an additional $600 million in youth programming and $300 million to restore money for sales tax intercepts.

The city will also seek state approval for pension amortization, which could save more than $2 billion by restructuring some payments over the next two years, which Mamdani assured wouldn’t affect benefits for current or retired city workers.

“I think there’s a logic to smoothing out payments,” city Comptroller Mark Levine said Tuesday morning after a budget briefing with the mayor and his team. 

“I think it’s easier to plan for the long term when you have a smooth payment schedule.”

More than $1 billion in savings comes through a delay in the state’s mandated cap on class sizes which would require hiring more teachers and administrators. Last year, the city approved hiring 3,700 more teachers and 100 more assistant principals.

Mamdani added more money to hire 1,000 additional teachers and $1.5 billion to the $7.6 billion existing budget for the School Construction Authority’s five-year capital plan.

The mayor is also working to rein in spending on some students whose private school tuition is paid for by the city when it’s found they can’t receive the same special education services at public schools. 

The cost of what’s known as “Carter” and “Connors” cases – depending on how the money is paid out – has increased 300% over the last decade, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. Tuition costs can go as high as $144,000 per student.

To address this rising number of students, the Department of Education will invest more money in special education needs, like speech and occupational therapy, the mayor said.

Another major rising cost to the city’s budget is housing vouchers, specifically through the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or FHEPS, program. 

The mayor is fighting a legal battle against implementing a package of laws the City Council passed in 2023 to expand eligibility for the vouchers. He promised to put the laws into effect as a candidate, but reversed once he took office due to budget pressures. 

Around 68,000 households rely on CityFHEPS vouchers, while another 47,000 could end up depending on the program if it’s expanded.

Mamdani plans to save $519 million within CityFHEPS, mostly through administrative changes, he said. 

The mayor announced new spending in his budget, including $40 million for the Office of Community Safety and $26 million towards hate crime prevention.

‘Conservative’ on New Spending

Levine, the comptroller, said there was a lot of “good news in this budget” but he was still cautious.

“We are entering into very uncertain economic times because of the threat of a recession and the impact of AI, and I want us to build a very strong fiscal foundation that grows reserves,” he said.

“There still is a reliance on a number of one-shot measures, and those are tools that are then going to be off the table next year. And we are looking at about a $7 billion shortfall for the following fiscal year.”

Levine did praise the mayor for his “pretty modest” additional spending.

Some of the additional money includes $31.7 million to the three library systems, $15 million to the Parks Department, $10 million to cultural organizations and $15 million to the City University of New York.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen a mayor be this conservative on new spending,” Levine said about the spending. “It reflects why we’re in a better place today than we were in February.”

Mamdani had floated a property tax increase as a last-resort option to raise money to fill the gap, as Gov. Hochul continued to resist raising taxes.

Raising the property tax rate, which has not been done since Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is one of the few levers the mayor has to raise revenue. It was met with immediate backlash and was unlikely to pass in the Council. 

Hochul’s help to the city benefits the whole state, she said at an unrelated event Monday.

“He inherited a pretty significant financial mess,” Hochul said. 

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took a cautious approach to the promised state aid.

“I think until that budget is passed, you don’t know if all that money is real,” he said following his briefing.

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A month before the first World Cup soccer match takes place at Met Life Stadium across the Hudson River, only 25% of the available rooms in New York City hotels have been booked for the six weeks when matches will be held.

FIFA says demand is unprecedented and that every one of the 104 matches across the country will be sold out, even as it continues to release tickets as match days approach. Meanwhile, resale prices for every match are falling in a sign of weak demand.

The sky high cost of actually getting to Met Life stadium and rapidly rising air fares as a result of the Iran war are two more blows to the event’s prospects.

The result is that an economic boost that FIFA claimed would exceed $3 billion for the New York area is likely to fall well short, leaving the city to spend far more on managing the event than it will receive in tax revenue and economic activity.

“The branding effect of the World Cup was always overstated because New York and New Jersey already have a lot of visibility internationally,” said Danielle Zanzalari, assistant professor of economics at Seton Hall University. “Places like Cincinnati and Kansas City would benefit more from the international exposure.”

No one has a single explanation for the disappointing hotel bookings and weak demand. High prices are one factor. A seat purchased directly from FIFA for the first match on June 13 for the lower bowl — where the views of the field are the best — originally cost $640, when the teams that would be playing had yet to be announced.

In the last two weeks, resale prices for that match between two highly ranked teams, Brazil and Morocco, have fallen by 9%, according to TicketData.com, which tracks that market.

Another complication is the unprecedented plan for the World Cup to hold matches in three countries — the United States, Mexico and Canada — which may be depressing visitors, says Julie Coker, CEO of New York City Tourism + Conventions.

“We can’t ignore the broader environment,” added Virginia Maloney, the chair of the City Council’s economic development committee, which has held hearings on the World Cup. The war with Iran has made international travelers nervous and the Trump administration has made it difficult for visitors from many countries to get visas.

Big events like the World Cup or the Olympics need to generate enough demand that they  overcome the loss of tourists who avoid that city because of high prices or fears of overcrowding. But biggest declines in occupancy compared with 2025 occur on the eight days of matches being held at Met Life, showing that tourists are especially avoiding New York on those days.

According to CoStar, which tracks hotel occupancy and room rates, only a third of New York City rooms are spoken for on June 13 — 12 percentage points below the year ago. Even for the much anticipated World Cup final on July19, only 20% of rooms are taken.

Those vacancies will take a toll on the city budget – which is already in the grip of a $5.6 billion shortfall.

Earlier this spring, city Comptroller Mark Levine estimated that even if FIFA’s prediction that 1.2 million people would visit New York for the event came true, the additional tax revenue would be no more than $55 million, while the city is expected to spend $70 million in additional costs for the NYPD, emergency management, and small business support. 

If the number of visitors falls short, the gap between added tax revenue and costs will widen.

Councilmember Maloney notes that legislation pending in Albany that would allow bars and restaurants to expand outdoor activities during the matches could help increase economic activity. She is also lobbying the Mandani administration to reconsider a policy that will restrict some event permits for city parks during the six weeks of the World Cup, which was instituted to conserve police resources.

“Our neighborhood-level, community-run, often free programming that serves the people who live here has been shut out in the process,” she said in a letter to the mayor and police commissioner. “Give New Yorkers back their summer.”

Some officials like Coker note that New York is actually doing better than other host cities in terms of rooms booked and she says the trend is improving. “In March, we were down 11 percentage points for those weeks compared to 2025. Now we are down only 6 percentage points,” she told THE CITY.

Hotels have begun to reduce rates. The bellwether Midtown Hilton on Sixth Avenue is currently asking $490 a night for its least expensive room for the four days before the first match on June 13, down from $533 a month ago. It is not sold out.

City Hall didn’t return a mesage seeking comment. 

In the meantime, even those who purchased tickets are waiting for FIFA to send them the actual tickets – with their actual seat numbers — and, with no parking at Met Life and a rail ticket to Met Life from Penn Station costing $110 a person, wondering what they are in for and how much it will cost.

“My spouse is going to the June 16 match and he’s not even sure how to get there,” said Zanzalari, who lives in Summit, N.J. — which is only 20 miles from the stadium.

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The city’s Correction Department is set to renew a multimillion-dollar contract with a prison telecom giant that’s bragged of using recordings of detainees’ private phone calls to train its artificial intelligence model.  

The Mamdani administration plans to pay Securus Technologies up to $23 million over five years for phone service used by roughly 7,000 people detained on Rikers Island, according to a notice in the City Record. The contract is set to begin July 1.

The Brooklyn Defenders legal aid group and technology experts are urging the Mamdani administration to scrap the agreement, arguing it could hand over vast amounts of personal data including recordings, voiceprints and social connections to a private company with limited oversight and a checkered history.

The conversations people in jail have with their loved ones include intimate moments and private, vulnerable, interactions. It was unclear if, in addition to being recorded, the private calls of New York City detainees are being used to train Securus’ AI model. 

In a memo opposing the contract, Brooklyn Defenders warned of “a community surveillance apparatus that reaches far beyond jail walls, sweeping up the families, friends, and communities of incarcerated New Yorkers without their knowledge.”

Securus began developing AI systems in 2023 using its archive of recorded jail calls to train models designed to flag potential criminal activity, company president Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review.

One model, he said, was built using seven years of calls from the Texas prison system, with additional efforts underway to create similar tools tailored to other states and localities.

Over the past year, the company has been testing these tools to analyze inmate conversations in real time, according to Elder. 

He described the system as capable of scanning what he called a “treasure trove” of data, using large language models to identify signs that a crime may be planned, with the goal of detecting potential criminal activity earlier in its development.

Correction officials pushed back on several of the concerns raised by advocates — particularly related to immigration enforcement — saying the agency has not enrolled in Securus’ broader data-sharing network.

“The Department has not opted-in to any data or information sharing application with external users,” spokesperson Latima Johnson said in a statement. 

The contract’s confidentiality provisions bar Securus from sharing reports or data without prior written approval from the department, she added.

Department officials declined to answer detailed questions about whether federal immigration authorities have ever sought access to the data, or whether the new contract contains additional safeguards related to AI or third-party integrations.

The proposed contract has not been made available to the public.

Advocates point out Securus was found to have improperly recorded hundreds of attorney-client calls from Rikers, which was later disclosed to prosecutors in 2020 and 2021. 

The issue came to light after public defenders discovered the recordings in evidence shared by prosecutors. The company ultimately deleted the affected calls and worked with the city to overhaul safeguards.

Representatives for Securus, headquartered in Dallas, did not respond to an email seeking comment. 

‘Swept Into These Systems’

Zina Maka, a law professor who studies prison surveillance and emerging technologies, said prison systems historically operate with broad secrecy and legal deference.

“A lot of things that happen in the prison space are subject to a significant amount of opacity,” she told THE CITY.

The introduction of technology has improved communication in jails and prisons — detainees now have access to tablets for video calls — and educational offerings for incarcerated people. 

But it also expands surveillance beyond jail walls, Maka said. 

“Families who have done nothing wrong are increasingly swept into these systems simply because they’re communicating with someone in custody,” she said.

Critics noted Securus’ THREADS platform, which aggregates call recordings, transcripts, voiceprints and financial data to map social connections and flag behavioral patterns that investigators deem suspicious.

Securus previously said the database included information from more than 1.5 million people — including many who were never incarcerated but had received calls from someone who was.

The Correction Department says recorded calls to and from Rikers are not part of the THREADS community. 

Current jail officials did not detail what, if any, privacy protections would be part of the new contract. 

Brooklyn Defenders also raised concerns about a feature that allows participating agencies to share data across jurisdictions. If enabled, that tool could pool New York City jail data with information from facilities in other states — including some that routinely detain immigrants for federal authorities. 

That could potentially allow outside investigators to search data on New Yorkers locked up on Rikers, critics of the new contract say. 

DOC officials maintained that none of the calls would be shared with ICE. 

‘Control every word’

Bianca Tylek, executive director of advocacy group Worth Rises, said the Correction Department should stop recording detainee calls altogether..

“People’s detention is the punishment,” she told THE CITY. “But there are tons of private moments — conversations about family finances, mental health, things that have nothing to do with crime — that really shouldn’t be the purview of the government.”

Tylek also pointed to the impact on people outside the jail system. 

“It’s not just the person who’s incarcerated,” she said. “Families who have done nothing wrong are caught up in this surveillance — their voices are recorded, databased and stored for years, if not forever.”

One mother, whose son has been held on Rikers Island for more than two years, said the constant monitoring has fundamentally changed how they speak to each other.

“We have to control every word,” the woman, who asked not to be named, told THE CITY. “It’s impossible to really talk with my son about his children.”

She said her son sometimes breaks down crying on the phone but avoids discussing why because he assumes the conversations are being recorded.

Tylek noted that recording calls made from jail only started in 2008 under former Commissioner Martin Horn. Initially, the calls would be kept for 18 months before being erased. DOC did not say if that is still the case. Horn has long argued the recordings are a key tool to keeping people safe in jail and for prosecutors to bolster their criminal cases. 

Tylek noted that city officials have never publicly disclosed data on how often the recorded calls have led to those outcomes. 

“We’ve asked DOC to share how many hours they are recording and what percentage of those calls are being flagged for any security purposes,” she said. 

Commissioner Defends Contract

The contract renewal with Securus was spearheaded by James Conroy, the department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters. Conroy, who spent 25 years with the NYPD’s legal department, joined Corrections in 2024. 

The proposed deal must still be formally registered by City Comptroller Mark Levine. His office is reviewing the contract, which will likely take several weeks, spokesperson Terrence Cullen said. 

The contract extension comes as the Mamdani administration has hired a senior advisor for technology and innovation to oversee the city’s expanded use of AI. Rashida Richardson, a civil rights attorney, previously served as senior counsel at Mastercard. 

Asked about the Securus deal, she responded, “I have to decline.”

The contract comes as new Corrections Commissioner Stanley Richards has publicly talked about his difficult experience as a detainee on Rikers during the 1980s as he struggled with addiction. 

Richards defended the contract at an unrelated event last week, saying the calls would not be shared with ICE.

Asked if he’d have been concerned about his calls from Rikers Island to his father being recorded back in the day, Richards responded, “No.”

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Councilmember Vickie Paladino and the City Council settled their ethics feud over her anti-Muslim social media posts, with the Queens Republican agreeing to delete her tweets and remove any mention of her job on her personal accounts.

The charges filed March 2 by the Council’s ethics committee were permanently withdrawn, according to a court filing. In turn, Paladino withdrew a lawsuit she filed against the Council.

The Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics voted in early March to charge Paladino for social media posts she made after Zohran Mamdani was elected as the city’s first Muslim mayor, and a tweet she published after an ISIS-inspired terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia.

In one now-deleted tweet, she posted that “we need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders.” 

Under the settlement, Paladino will have to modify her account on X to remove “council woman” from her display name, and delete three tweets that are still up. 

Paladino will also have to make a public statement.

“To be clear, my personal social-media posts were not directed at any Council Member or staff,” she will be required to post. “I am responsible for the content, I never intended to make Council Members or staff feel unwelcome or unsafe in their work environment. I send a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the court for facilitating this resolution.”

Councilmember Sandra Ung, the chair of the ethics committee, is also required to post that she believes “the resolution strikes the right balance between protection of council staff and the first amendment liberties of council members.”

Paladino was represented by Jim Walden, a failed 2025 mayoral candidate. He argued in at least one hearing that the tempest was a free speech issue, and provided examples of other Council members posting their own opinions about police officers or, in some cases, white people.

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Three days before a fatal fire May 4th at 207 Dyckman St. in Inwood, housing inspectors appeared at the six-story walkup and issued a dozen code violations.

One of those was for a non-functioning self-closing apartment entry door that was deemed “immediately hazardous.”

After the blaze was put out, firefighters discovered severe fire damage in eight apartments where entry doors had been left open. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore made a point of noting that units where the doors were closed “had very little impact, no fire.”

The city’s housing code requires property owners to fix “immediately hazardous” violations — such as the self-closing door at Dyckman Street — within 24 hours.

But, according to city records and sworn statements, the building’s owners have a track record of letting dangerous conditions linger. 

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has issued more than a thousand violations over the last few years to the landlords of the Dyckman Street building at properties they own across New York, an investigation by THE CITY has found.

The problems are so bad that HPD has been forced to file suit 16 times since 2020 alleging a persistent failure to address serious health and safety issues at 10 properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens controlled by co-owners of the Dyckman St. property, Jack Bick, Chaim Schweid and their affiliated real estate companies, records show.

Bick ranks 80th on Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ list of the city’s 100 worst landlords.

“I have heard complaints that they don’t respond,” said a 22-year-old tenant of one of Janjan’s Manhattan buildings. “Like, they take years to, like, fix a problem.” 

As of last week those 10 buildings had racked up a total of 1,343 open housing code violations, including 406 listed as “immediately hazardous.”

On April 27, HPD sued Bick, Schweid and their firms Janjan Realty and SB Dyckman LLC over serious code violations at 209 Dyckman St. — the building next door to the fire site. That included citations for two fire safety issues: a blocked egress and a missing smoke detector.

As of last week both Dyckman Street buildings had a combined total of 336 open violations, 100 of them “immediately hazardous.”

A ‘Top Priority’ for Mamdani

At the time of the fire, 207 Dyckman St. had been placed in HPD’s “alternate enforcement program,” which targets landlords who accumulate an alarming number of serious violations within a year. Property owners in the AEP program are then subject to random inspections to clean up past outstanding violations. At 207 Dyckman, HPD and Janjan had resolved 85 past citations as of Thursday.

HPD told THE CITY it “will use every tool in its toolbox to ensure tenants are safe and landlords meet their obligations.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani “has been clear that enforcing housing quality is a top priority for this administration, and we will continue to take action against unsafe conditions and bad landlords whenever and wherever they exist,” the agency said in a statement.  

The lawsuits HPD has filed against Bick, Schweid and their firms highlight a persistent failure to address serious code violations at specific buildings. Over the last year, HPD had to sue Bick three times over violations at one of his buildings on Bessemund Avenue in Far Rockaway, then another three times over a building he controls a few blocks away on Hartman Lane.

Both locations included violations for non-working self-closing doors.

‘Unsafe Conditions’

At another Bick-owned Far Rockaway building on Bay 30th Street, HPD last month filed suit accusing the landlord of deliberately “neglecting those unsafe conditions as part of an intentional and aggressive campaign to harass and displace rent stabilized tenants.” They allege at one point a tenant without a lawyer was offered $100 to vacate their apartment.

Schweid controls four properties sued by HPD over the last few years, including a 49-unit rental building on Ocean Parkway in Kensington, Brooklyn.

In the last two years housing inspectors have fielded dozens of complaints about unsafe conditions there, and HPD has at times been forced to bill Schweid for repairs city-hired vendors had to perform when the landlord failed to do so. 

As of this week the Ocean Parkway building had 91 open violations, 30 of them “immediately hazardous.” Since December the building has been cited five times for non-functioning self-closing doors.

A lawyer for Bick did not return THE CITY’s calls seeking comment, and a message left at a number listed for Janjan Realty was not returned. A lawyer for Schweid did not return a call or an email from THE CITY.

On Thursday, fire department officials cited the Dyckman Street fire at a press conference touting a recent public service announcement they released following an April fire at a building on East 187th Street in The Bronx that resulted in two deaths. Officials said firefighters entering that building found many apartment entry doors had been left wide open.

First Deputy Fire Commissioner Dan Flynn advised New Yorkers to always close their doors and leave them closed when fleeing the scene of a fire.

Open doors create a chimney effect that spreads fire, smoke and flames — a factor that was in play during the May 4 Dyckman Street conflagration that killed three tenants, including People magazine journalist Yolaine Diaz and her mother, Ana Mirtha Lantigua.

“This year we’ve had many fatalities that have resulted from residents opening doors or leaving doors open,” Flynn said. “Closed doors will limit the spread of that fire, limit the spread of toxic gases and smoke.”

Flynn cited two examples in The Bronx where open doors contributed to the rapid spread of fatal fires — a December 2017 blaze on Prospect Avenue that caused 13 deaths, and a January 2022 fire in the Twin Parks building that killed 17.

“If not for an open door, I am confident that nobody would have died in either one of those fires,” he said.

Contributing: Lilly Sabella

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Councilmember Shahana Hanif formally dropped her support of a bill that would ban 24-hour shifts for home health aides, and other council sponsors say they’ve proposed modifications to ensure people don’t lose crucial care. 

The loss of a co-sponsor for the “No More 24” bill comes as Council Speaker Julie Menin deferred a possible vote next week.

Menin hasn’t committed to bringing Introduction 303 to a vote when the Council meets May 14, according to a spokesperson who said it is moving through the legislative with no date set for a vote.

Those in favor of the bill say home health aides often work 24-hour shifts for disabled or elderly clients, but only get paid for 13 hours. Opponents say a lack of state funding for the bill’s requirement for two 12-hour shifts would harm people who require around-the-clock care.

Hanif (D-Brooklyn), who heads up the Council’s disability committee, chaired an oversight hearing Tuesday where she heard from disabled New Yorkers who spoke against the bill and urged her to take her name off as a sponsor. There are currently 17 co-sponsors.

“I hope it signals the seriousness required to move legislation impacting both workers and patients,” Hanif told THE CITY on Thursday.

Joseph Rappaport, executive director of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, praised Hanif’s decision and hoped others will follow.

“I think everybody realizes because this bill is flawed, and everybody also wants to make sure that these workers are protected,” he said. “I think people have figured out that if the bill went forward, some people will actually lose their jobs. Beyond that, people with disabilities will lose their coverage. Nobody wants that.”

A spokesperson for Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) said they were “hopeful that we can regain Councilmember Hanif’s support for this legislation and take seriously her point that this issue demands care and attention for both workers and patients.”

Other Council members told THE CITY they’ve pitched changes to make sure people who need the care get it, without workers being exploited. 

Councilmember Ty Hankerson (D-Queens) said he asked Marte to include an amendment that would let some workers get a waiver to work 24 hours. 

“I believe in the intent of the bill, 100% believe in the intent of the bill,” Hankerson said, adding that he would drop his support if the changes weren’t made. “I do think that there are some challenges that the bill presents that unfortunately on the council level we might not be able to solve.”

Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) said he’ll stay on as a sponsor but also wants changes.

Supporters of the bill, including elderly former home aides, camped outside of City Hall for weeks pushing Menin to bring it to a vote and for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to support it. 

Workers held a multi-day hunger strike before ending it after the speaker assured the bill would get a vote.

A spokesperson for Menin said she has “long fought for strong worker protections” and thinks more should be done to stop exploitation. 

“As part of the ongoing legislative process, the Council has updated the bill after many conversations with stakeholders,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Though details of the Menin’s changes are not publicly available, POLITICO reported that the new version exempts union workers, delays its implementation for a year and allows home health workers to opt into longer shifts through the fall of 2027.

Vincent Cao, an organizer at the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, slammed Menin’s changes.

“We have fought for too long,” to allow people to continue working 24-hour shifts, he said. “It needs to end.”

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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced a $268 billion state budget deal but the state assembly speaker shot back, saying there was no agreement.

Hochul said the disputed New York state budget agreement included a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, investments in universal child care and more money for police officers on the subway. Her budget did not appear to include additional additional cash to help New York City fix its $5.4 billion deficit.

But Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie later told reporters Hochul had jumped the gun.

“There is no budget deal,” Heastie said, adding, “I don’t care what the governor says.”

“I said to her last night I was comfortable with her saying to y’all we were close  — it is close,” Heastie, of The Bronx, said. “But this is what’s wrong with this process. It’s like, ‘I’m gonna only talk about policy and when I think the legislature is giving me what I want on policy, then we’ll talk about money.’”

Heastie said he planned to send his members home on Thursday.

“We signed off on nothing major,” he said. “I’m never doing this again. Budgets are supposed to be about money, not policy.”

Hochul had no immediate comment.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger, said the budget snafu reminded him of the reality show “Deal or No Deal.”

“This is the left hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” he said of the intraparty squabbling. “The fact of the matter is it’s the height of incompetence, it’s a lack of leadership.”

Budget One Month Late

Hochul’s budget, which was due April 1, is $13 billion more than last year’s and $8 billion more than Hochul initially proposed.

The “general agreement” on the budget was still light on details as the legislature will continue to go over the proposal in the coming days, the governor said.

“I’m not going to mince the words. The negotiations were not easy,” Hochul said.

“There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome, and the dysfunction out of Washington certainly doesn’t help.”

Here’s what we know about the state budget deal:

• The governor said legislators are finalizing details of on a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes to help “close the city’s budget gap without eroding its tax base or burdening hard-working New Yorkers.”

• Hochul said the budget includes her proposal to streamline environmental reviews for housing developments, letting some projects skip a 51-year-old state law requiring an extensive review that often holds up construction. 

• And the budget includes a “super speeder” bill which would require drivers with 16 or more speed-camera tickets over a year to install a device that would limit the car’s speed based on the local speed limit. 

Unanswered Questions

While the top question on Thursday was what led to the public breakdown between Hochul and Heastie — and when a proper deal might emerge — the details of key provisions were still up in the air.

• That second-home tax: It remains to be seen how the pied-à-terre tax would work. Specifically, how would the “value” of a second home be measured? Market values change, and assessed values are wildly out of whack, which could leave many lux pads out. There’s also a question about how to tax second homes owned by LLCs or shell companies. 
• Pension reforms: Hochul teased that she was scaling back plans to enact sweeping pension reform for the more than 700,000 public sector workers on what is called Tier 6, who receive smaller pension benefits than employees hired before 2012. Unions want changes that would cost $1.5 billion a year. It’s not clear how much — or how little — Hochul and the legislature are prepared to expand Tier 6 benefits. 
• Climate law: With qualms about affordability and facing headwinds from the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy projects, Hochul has made no secret that she’d like to weaken the state’s ambitious 2019 climate law. Under the budget deal, the governor can now implement those regulations in 2028, while using a different formula to count emissions — making it easier for the state to hit its reduction targets.

Hochul to City: I’ve Done Plenty

Hochul’s announcement did not include additional commitments of state funds for the cash-strapped city. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin last week pitched the state on a change to the pass-through entity tax, or PTET, which lets some business people keep state and local tax deductions that were limited by a 2017 federal law. They believe those changes could bring in $1 billion in revenue.

Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, immediately shot it down, and didn’t say whether the proposed budget includes any more of a bailout for the city. 

On Friday, she defended what she’s already doing for the five boroughs, pointing to more than $1 billion to support universal childcare and another $1.5 billion to help close the gap.

“We’ve been asked to do a lot for the city, we’ve given unprecedented amounts of support for the city,” she said.

The City Council approved an extension for Mayor Mamdani’s executive budget, which was due around May 1, because of the tardiness of the state’s budget. 

On Thursday, the mayor – a former state assemblymember –  said he planned to release his executive budget next week as planned. And he expected the city would get what it needed to help close the budget gap.

“I’m feeling hopeful about the direction of those negotiations,” he said at an unrelated press conference. “Those were productive conversations.”

Contributing: Samantha Maldonado, Claudia Irizarry Aponte.

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When the Independent Budget Office and the city comptroller released their annual economic and budget review late last year, they projected that New York City would add about 40,000 jobs in 2025, mostly home health care jobs.

But when the final numbers came out in the spring, the state labor department said the city had actually lost 20,000 jobs — with a sharp reduction in home health care jobs.

Now a report from economist James Parrott says that the city in fact added 22,000 jobs last year.

What happened? According to Parrott, senior adviser to the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, the state Department of Labor’s numbers on home health care jobs have been inaccurate for the last two years. What does it mean? It will be very hard to know what is happening with the city economy this year, which could affect everything from economic development efforts to projections of city tax revenues.

“Unless you make a hard adjustment in the data to correct for the misreporting of homecare jobs, we’re left with a distorted view of the city’s economy and job market,” Parrott said.

How Economists Track Employment

Every month, the U.S. Department of Labor asks 600,000 employers nationwide how many jobs they added or shed. That may not seem like a lot, but political polls routinely report who is ahead in a presidential race by reaching no more than 3,000 voters and often as few as 1,000. The New York City job numbers are based on the reports of the local employers.

In the spring, those numbers are revised based on unemployment insurance taxes paid by all employers. These numbers are more comprehensive.

What Went Wrong?

Home health care employment surged between 2022 and 2025 when the state began allowing relatives and friends to be paid for providing care to seniors and disabled clients under the state’s Medicaid program. The state also allowed 600 social service agencies to be involved to hire and pay them. It became very difficult to track how many people had been hired and where they were working.

In the spring of 2025, to control costs, the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul established a single intermediary for the hiring of all health aides, which resulted in more precise data. Parrot says the new information showed that the labor department had overstated the number of those jobs in the city and understated those outside the city.

So, What Are the Real Job Numbers?

As a result, says Parrott, the city actually gained about 22,000 jobs, which — while much slower than in recent years — was considerably better than the national jobs increase in percentage terms. 

Other economists who track the city’s economy told THE CITY they believed Parrott’s work was accurate. 

A spokesperson for the state Labor Department didn’t return a request for comment. 

What Does This Mean for 2026?

Since the revised 2025 state labor department numbers are not accurate, it will be impossible to compare the current number of jobs in New York City with 2025, leaving uncertainty in the official data about whether the city is actually gaining or losing employment.  

For example, March data released last week showed the city has lost 37,000 positions over the last 12 months. But if the March 2025 job number is not correct, neither is the 37,000 figure.

Another Complication

City officials, especially during the Adams administration, loved to focus on what they called private sector jobs, which means all jobs except government. The problem is that the majority of health care and social service jobs — like those of home health aides — are paid for by tax dollars, so they aren’t really private sector jobs. 

The city comptroller has begun tracking private sector jobs excluding health care and social services. Meanwhile, government jobs are generally good paying ones — they count too.

How’s the economy?

“The city’s labor market lost momentum in 2025,” Parrott writes, “The unemployment rate and poverty rate are higher than before the pandemic.” He adds that the impact of higher tariffs, rising prices because of the war with Iran and anticipated job losses due to artificial intelligence suggest the labor market will be marked by instability and structural transformation.

The state comptroller’s office is also worried.

“The analysis just confirms what has become a recurring story on jobs — government and Wall Street are critical contributors amid a slowing job growth picture in the city,” said Rahul Jain, the deputy comptroller for New York City. “We are becoming more, not less, reliant on these sectors for job growth and some of the traditional ladders for entering and moving up through the wage ladder.” 

Sectors like leisure,  hospitality and construction “are showing softness,” he added. 

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City lawyers have agreed to pay nearly $5.2 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families of two men who died from methadone overdoses while jail staff ignored them on Rikers Island.

The settlements come amid a sharp rise in claims and a dramatic spike in taxpayer-funded payouts by the Department of Correction. 

In fiscal year 2024, the city logged 7,254 claims, up from 4,580 the previous year and eclipsing prior highs, according to data from the city comptroller’s office. Payouts ballooned to about $254 million, up from roughly $43 million in 2023. The reasons for the massive increase weren’t clear. 

Jose Mejia Martinez, 34, was neglected by multiple correction officers for more than three hours as he suffered a fatal overdose in a housing unit at the George R. Vierno Center on June 10, 2021, according to a lawsuit filed by his estate. The city agreed to pay $2.7 million to resolve the claims.

The other case involved Donny Ruben Ubiera, 33, who died from a similar overdose at the same facility on Aug. 22, 2023. The city settled that lawsuit for $2.4 million last Friday.

Both men appeared to overdose on methadone that had been administered to other detainees as part of their addiction treatment, according to jail sources familiar with reviews of the two deaths. Some incarcerated people will “cheek” doses of methadone administered by Correctional Health Services — hiding the medication in their mouths — and later spit it out to sell or trade, according to multiple jail insiders. 

Methadone is a long-acting opioid medication used to treat addiction by reducing withdrawal symptoms and cravings — but it can be fatal if taken in large quantities. 

“These settlements reflect the devastating consequences of a correctional system that repeatedly failed two vulnerable men in its custody,” said Julia Kuan, a lawyer at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, the firm that filed the lawsuits.

Martinez had been held after violating his parole by allegedly stealing a can of beer and had a history of substance use and mental health disorders, according to the lawsuit. He obtained methadone from another detainee and ingested it in a housing unit dayroom, a common area that should have been under supervision.

Soon, Martinez began staggering through the unit, struggling to remain upright and leaning against a stairwell railing while appearing severely intoxicated for more than 40 minutes, the lawsuit alleged. At one point, a correction officer walked past him without intervening as he slumped over the railing.

Other detainees helped Martinez back to his cell. Over the next several hours, officers looked into his cell multiple times as he lay incapacitated but did not call for medical assistance.

A medical emergency was declared only after another detainee found Martinez unresponsive and alerted staff, according to the lawsuit by Martinez’ family. By the time medics arrived, he was already dead — and showing signs of rigor mortis.

In a 29-page report issued in January 2025, the state Attorney General’s Office found that a correction officer had failed to fulfill his duty to obtain medical care, despite rules and training requiring him to do so.

Ubiera, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had previously received treatment at a state psychiatric center because he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial before being returned to Rikers Island, jail records show.

According to the complaint, his mental health deteriorated in a mental observation unit, where he repeatedly attempted to harm himself in front of staff and told officers he wanted to die.

The lawsuit alleges that on the night before his death, Ubiera ingested methadone in view of correction officers and later banged on his cell door and called for help for hours without a response.

Surveillance footage cited in the complaint shows officers had missed routine rounds. Ubiera was found unresponsive the next morning and, while officers began CPR, Narcan was not immediately available in the housing area.

By the time it was retrieved from another unit, several minutes had passed. Ubiera was pronounced dead later that day.

A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department declined to comment.

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