New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released the following statement today regarding the update to the city's Financial Plan:

“Today’s release of New York City’s November Financial Plan update highlights the difficult steps needed to generate savings that will balance the city’s budget this year, and in the future, as substantial budget volatility is expected to continue. Unfortunately, it remains unclear how the city prioritized its choices to minimize the impact on critical public services. Budget choices that are not made efficiently — reducing costs without hurting services — can undermine the progress the city has made in public safety, health, education and trash management.

“The budget update also continues the city’s practice of not fully budgeting for known spending risks, including for transportation, education and social services. The city did not budget for the cost of expanding its Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (FHEPS) housing voucher program or its school class size mandate. While the city did add $3 billion for managing the influx of asylum seekers in Fiscal Years (FY) 2026 and 2027 — part of the $10 billion added for this cost across the whole plan — those costs are likely to be higher than expected. The combination of these unbudgeted and underbudgeted costs is likely to exceed the savings generated in the plan, an average of $2 billion per year beginning in FY 2025.

“The good news in the financial plan update is that revenues have outpaced projections by $775 million so far this fiscal year. If sustained for the rest of the fiscal year, the city will have additional resources to manage spending pressures this year and potentially even build reserves to buffer against future unanticipated spending. If the city had built up reserves earlier, it could have mitigated the severity of the service cuts it now faces.

“With private sector job growth fully returned, the city should remain laser focused on its efforts to stay a place where people want to live, work and invest. Economic growth will support revenue growth and help the city manage its budget. The city must continue to balance its budget while keeping the impact on critical services in mind and it must inform the public on how it is achieving this.”