A record-breaking $111-plus billion budget that will reverse the majority of cuts pushed by Mayor Eric Adams in recent months has been reached in a handshake deal with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams set to be announced Friday, sources told The Post.
The two Adamses (no relation) — whose rivalry has become increasingly bitter — will shake hands on the fiscal year 2025 budget agreement during an afternoon event, sources said.
The mammoth spending plan, if approved, would be the largest budget in New York City’s history, dwarfing the$107 billion approved by Council members for the current fiscal year.
The full scope of reversals had yet to be unveiled, but the $58 million funding restoration to libraries touted by the mayor and speaker Thursday night will bring seven-day service back to branches, a source told The Post.
The budget will also put $112 million toward 3-K and pre-K seats out of $293 million overall to early education programs, sources said.
But the funding won’t fully reverse cuts to those programs – instead, it will cover $92 million lost in federal funding and add $20 million to 3-K, sources said.
The modest $20 million reversal will open 3-K seats to 1,700 more families, sources said.
Other restorations include $53 million to city cultural institutions, $19.6 million to the Department of Education’s “Summer Rising” program and $14 million to community schools, a source said.
The deal also includes generous additional funding for housing and education, according to a source.
NYCHA will receive $2 billion over the next two years for capital projects designed to help the agency fix long-crumbling housing, a source said. Another $714 million will go into the education budget.
Transit advocates hailed an expansion of Fair Fares, a program that gives low-income New Yorkers discounts on subway and bus rides, in the budget that they said would reach hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers.
“In the City budget, subway and bus riders won the biggest Fair Fares expansion so far,” the Riders Alliance crowed in a statement.
Many lawmakers and advocates had been outraged over the mayor’s cuts, which he contended were necessary to plug the hole of a multibillion-dollar migrant crisis.
“It took a while, but I think once both sides agreed the city’s revenue forecast was looking way better than originally expected, it was inevitable that the mayor would reverse the budget cuts,” said Councilman David Carr (R-Staten Island).
Sources said the budget also contains $2 billion in new spending on housing.
“Looks like budget will be voted on by council on Sunday,” a source said.
The budgetary backflip on libraries — which faced scaling back to five-day-a-week service under the mayor’s cuts — didn’t come as a surprise to Minority Speaker Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
He cast the high-profile bookish debate as the fiscal year 2025 “dance, same as the last.”
“One. Two. Three. Four. Financial calamity, counter-claims, press conferences, found money, compromise, cha cha cha,” he said.
Outside New York Public Library’s iconic main branch on 42nd Street, Douglas Woodward applauded the restoration of library funding.
“It’s not just a matter of restoring the cuts, it’s a matter of making [the library] more available to people,” said the 70-year-old Columbia University adjunct professor.
“I think [Adams] knows that, politically, he’s in trouble, and that this is something that is an easy give.”
Julius Mitsui, a Garment District worker, said the mayor’s initial cuts made sense, given “all the money was going to illegal migrants.”
“Things cost money,” he said, adding, “The budget being restored is a good thing.”
— Additional reporting by Caitlin McCormack and Carl Campanile
