After vowing on the campaign trail to give libraries up to 0.5% of the city’s budget, Mayor Mamdani in his preliminary spending plan included a $30 million cut.
The proposal takes a page from the playbook of his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, who did a budget dance with the City Council before eventually restoring full funding.
But that restoration wasn’t permanent funding, and libraries across the five boroughs could find themselves in a hole.
The proposal represents the latest example of a reversed campaign promise from an administration that’s barely six weeks old.
Just Wednesday, Mamdani announced he would resume sweeps of homeless encampments amid backlash over the deaths of 19 people during a recent city cold snap. He had earlier vowed to end that practice.
The new mayor has called libraries “critical” to the city’s success. Meanwhile, Mamdani has blamed the previous administration for any budget shortfalls.
About $2 million of the expected cut has been restored, but leaders of the city’s three library systems say it doesn’t come close to what they need.
“We are pleased to see that the mayor took a step forward and restored $2 million in funding for libraries in the city’s preliminary budget,” representatives from the Brooklyn, Queens and New York public libraries said in a joint statement.
“We look forward to working with the administration and city council to ensure that the FY27 budget fully funds the city’s libraries so that we can maintain vital services while also supporting enhanced Sunday hours. We are also highly encouraged by the mayor’s pledge to dedicate 0.5% of the city’s budget to libraries.”
Mamdani stressed the importance of city libraries during a December press conference, weeks before taking over.
“We’re not going to be doing a dance around things that are critically important to New Yorkers,” he said. “If there is something that we believe in, we will make that clear in our own preliminary, and we will be making announcements soon on our approach to the budget at large.”
When pressed by reporters on the 0.5% commitment, Mamdani said, “Yes.”
