Last week, I went back to Bayside High School in Queens to deliver the Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget — the Best Budget Ever — in the same place I attended high school. My message was simple: this budget is not some abstract set of numbers; it is a statement about what we value and how we are investing in the people of New York City — keeping them safe, making the five boroughs more affordable, protecting quality of life, and making sure this is the best place to raise a family.

The decisions we made in this budget were guided by my own lived experience, and the struggles I saw my mother go through. She worked three jobs just to put food on the table for me and my siblings — and she could have used a helping hand. Put simply, our city once betrayed working people but we have not allowed that to continue under our administration. So this is the budget she needed, and one million of other working-class people across this city need today. It makes real investments in the areas working-class families care about most, including child care, ‘After-School for All,’ health care, education, public safety, affordability, quality of life, and so much more. It is not a budget that favors the few, it is a budget for all New Yorkers.

In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget is the Best Budget Ever — one that adds $1.4 billion next fiscal year to protect critical programs that were facing spending cliffs and will support all New Yorkers — no matter their means or background. And about $675 million of those programs are baselined — meaning that they are a permanent part of our city’s budget going forward, year after year, forever. This commitment means more security and stability for our city, especially when it comes to areas like public safety, housing, and our children’s education.

From prioritizing access to child care and launching universal after-school programming to investing in permanent funding for libraries, CUNY, and public-safety and quality-of-life initiatives, this budget will protect and expand critical programs that will improve the lives of New York families. We are hiring more teachers, reducing class sizes, and investing in arts education for our students. Our new funding will also support computer science education, tutoring, teacher recruitment, Civics for All, and more. And the best part? These programs are all baselined. They will be there for you and your children in the future, even if those children are still just chasing pigeons on the playground.

Our Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget also looks out for the New Yorkers who need our help the most and protects services that strengthen our communities. By carefully managing our city’s finances, we have been able to add nearly $840 million this coming fiscal year alone to protect services that were facing budget cliffs — these include Medicaid, rental assistance, foster care services, social services for seniors, New York City’s cash assistance contribution, and shelters for victims of domestic violence.

This budget additionally locks in support for the housing programs and affordability initiatives that New Yorkers need. We are funding creation of our “Manhattan Plan” to rezone parts of the borough and unlock an additional 100,000 homes for New Yorkers over the next decade. We are also investing in our city’s 15/15 Supportive Housing Initiative that will create and preserve over 5,800 supportive homes and provide vulnerable New Yorkers with a place to call their own, as well as provide them with access to the social services that build on our work tackling homelessness and severe mental illness.

All of this builds on the unparalleled record we have achieved on housing, and our landmark “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan, which will create 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years. We are also investing more than ever in improving our infrastructure at $173 billion that will deliver on generational projects that were talked about for decades but never achieved until we came into office. This includes improving our roads, bridges, schools, and water and sewer facilities, as well as supporting more reliable transportation systems across the five boroughs.

But all of these big plans and dreams are only possible if New Yorkers are safe and feel safe. Public safety is the foundation on which our city is built, and we are proud New York remains the safest big city in America. Major crime was down by double digits over the first quarter of this year, and we are tackling quality-of-life issues with a new 1,500-member division within the NYPD created solely for that purpose. This budget helps keep our streets and subways safe and making sure we have enough men and woman to get the job done as we put the NYPD on track to 35,000 uniformed officers by next fall.

We know New Yorkers work hard for their money and that’s why we have remained focused on saving taxpayer dollars. Our policies also have set the table for a strong local economy. This, along with growth in the national economy, has enabled us to revise our tax revenue forecast upward and balance the budget without cutting programs or services, raising taxes on New Yorkers by a single penny, or laying off hard-working city employees.

This budget is a testament to our commitment to making New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to live and raise a family. We are doing all of this while maintaining record-high reserves to help us face anything that comes our way. This is the budget my mom needed, that my family needed, and, with it, we’re saying to working families: your city has your back. 

ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “CHICAGO ― They may not admit it but the Chicago Cubs for whom Hack Wilson flashed in 1930 and flivvered in 1931 still have plenty of respect for the strong little mauler from Martinsburg. He was watched closely from the Chicago bench whenever he strode […]

The post May 6: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

With roughly seven weeks to go in this year’s Democratic mayoral primary, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to lead the field by a wide margin, while Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani is the only other candidate who has gained significant momentum.

But will candidates’ expected big spending on TV advertising in the coming weeks be enough to shake things up? Here’s where the 2025 NYC Mayor’s race stands right now.

Cuomo dominating polls

Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment that he denies, has led the crowded race in a series of public polls since launching his campaign on March 1. He is filling the moderate lane once occupied by incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who opted out of the Democratic primary and launched an independent bid in the general election after his federal corruption case was dismissed last month.

The former governor has by far gained the most support from institutional pols, such as Brooklyn and Queens Democratic Party Chairs Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Gregory Meeks, respectively, and labor unions, including 32BJ SEIU and 1199SEIU. He has raked in over $1.5 million in private donations and is buoyed by millions more raised by a super PAC backing his run, though the city Campaign Finance Board (CFB) denied him a crucial tranche of matching funds last month.

In a Friday interview on Pix11, Cuomo reiterated his central campaign message that he jumped into the race because the city is “in crisis” and he believes he can fix it.

“We’re in a bad place, and I’m a New York City boy, through and through. I love this city,” Cuomo said. “I was worried that we are at a pivot point, and if we don’t get our act together quickly, you’re gonna see this city decline. And I just couldn’t sit by and let that happen.”

Mamdani emerging as main alternative

The Democratic socialist Mamdani has seen his campaign continue to rise in the polls. He consistently places second behind Cuomo while still trailing the former governor by double digits. Nevertheless, Mamdani’s straightforward platform appears to be resonating with many voters, which is evident in his status as the strongest fundraiser in the race.

“We have built a movement that transcends race and class, a movement that reaches from the sandy beaches of Coney Island to the cricket pitches of Van Cortlandt Park,” Mamdani said during a Sunday night rally in Brooklyn attended by over a thousand supporters. “Ours is a movement that asks New Yorkers to reimagine what we think is possible—and we’ve built it together, side by side, door by door.”

Meanwhile, many of the other major candidates—including city Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Brooklyn state senator Zellnor Myrie—have failed to gain traction. That has remained true even as each of them has notched their own major endorsements.

‘Getting late early’ for the Democratic field

Democratic strategist Trip Yang said Cuomo and Mamdani are leading the field in first and second place due to name recognition, institutional backing, and grassroots support, respectively.

“It’s really Cuomo’s name ID and perceived political strength, getting all of these endorsements, that has him out in the lead and Zohran running a very energetic, free-spirited, authentic economic-populist style of campaign that has him surging to second place,” Yang told amNewYork Metro. “Aside from that, you have a bunch of the other candidates bunched up together.”

Since even before officially jumping into the race, Cuomo’s rivals have been attacking him nearly every day over his record as governor and the scandals — including the sexual misconduct allegations and his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes — that brought down his administration. They have also hit him over skipping most mayoral forums, holding limited press availabilities, accepting contributions from Trump donors, and using AI for research in crafting his housing plan.

Another Democratic strategist, Evan Stavitsky, said that with just weeks to go until the June 24 primary, candidates are running out of time to chip away at Cuomo’s lead and change the shape of the race.

“Yogi Berra famously said, ‘it’s getting late early out there,’” Stavitsky said, quoting the legendary New York Yankees catcher. “He was talking about baseball, but the same holds true for the mayor’s race. The closer that we get to the start of early voting with nothing to shake up the dynamic of the race, the harder it is for someone to surge to the top who can provide a credible challenge to Andrew Cuomo.”

Is TV Cuomo’s worst enemy?

Although none of the attacks on Cuomo so far appear to have affected his numbers, that dynamic could change now that candidates are spending money to promote their negative messaging about him on TV.

“The one potential Achilles Heel for Cuomo is that his unfavorables are fairly high, which means that there’s the potential for his numbers to drop if negative and contrast ads against Cuomo were running on paid media,” Yang said. “All of these various candidates, they should spend their millions of dollars on TV ads, direct mail, digital buys, attacking Cuomo, so his numbers drop.”

However, if candidates expend their resources on going after Cuomo, they risk losing the opportunity to introduce themselves to voters and promote their own platforms, Yang said.

That tension is already visible in ads released by Mamdani and Myrie over the past couple of weeks, with Mamdani using his spot to contrast himself with Cuomo and Myrie choosing to focus on his own biography.

Furthermore, Yang said there is a “collective action problem” that arises when trying to get various candidates who all want to be mayor to act in concert. He said that while the Working Families Party endorsed a slate of four candidates — Mamdani, Lander, Speaker Adams, and Myrie — as an alliance against Cuomo, those contenders are all still looking out for themselves first.

Stavisky argued that even if candidates collectively hit the airwaves to attack Cuomo there is no guarantee that will make a difference, given that he is a known entity much of whose baggage has been public for years.

“He’s really well known and really well defined in the minds of voters,” Stavisky said. “He may have a ceiling to his support, but he also has a much higher floor.”