Mayor Eric Adams may be unusually unpopular in New York City, his re-election hopes damaged first by a federal corruption indictment and then by his successful overtures to the Trump administration to drop the case.
But he does have one superpower at his disposal: New York City’s $115 billion budget. And on Thursday, he showed every sign of using it to enhance his chances of winning another term.
Speaking to reporters in the sparsely occupied auditorium of Bayside High School in Queens, his alma mater from the 1970s, Mr. Adams repeatedly described his executive budget as the “best budget ever,” citing new investments he was making (and cuts he was reversing) in supportive housing, after-school programs and early education.
The celebratory tenor of the address represented a stark departure from prior years, when the mayor warned that the influx of migrants to New York City necessitated budget cuts. It also seemed to ignore some of the language in the budget book his own staff had prepared, which spoke of “financial market bedlam” and “haphazard policies embraced by the new Trump administration.”
The mayor adopted a far sunnier tone. He repeatedly said he was “base-lining” programs so that they would exist in perpetuity; his staff had outfitted the public school students arrayed behind him with signs bearing the word “forever.”
“This is the best budget ever for families and young people,” the mayor said.
The upbeat speech was the culmination of a week spent crisscrossing the boroughs to advertise one new investment after another.