Since day one of our administration, our mission has been to make New York City a safer, more affordable city that is the best place to raise a family. Last week, our team and I visited Albany to advocate for funding and legislation so that we can continue to fulfill that mission and keep delivering for working-class New Yorkers.
We focused on four key areas. First, passing our “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” legislation to make life more affordable for working-class New Yorkers. This plan eliminates or cuts city personal income taxes for low-income New Yorkers at a moment when our state faces a historic affordability crisis. We anticipate that “Axe the Tax” will generate an average benefit of $350, putting a total of more than $63 million back into the pockets of low-income families — helping more than 582,000 New Yorkers. Making New York City more affordable for working-class families strengthens our city and benefits us all.
Second, we called on Albany to pass the “Supportive Interventions Act” to finally allow people with severe mental illness to get the lasting support they need. I have been very clear: our subways are not a hospital and the days of ignoring people in need are over. The Supportive Interventions Act will help ensure people get the care they need until they are truly ready for discharge and receive “assisted outpatient treatment” afterwards if they need ongoing support.
Third, we advocated for reforming laws so we can continue to protect defendants’ rights, while improving the efficiency of our criminal justice system. We must do more to ensure repeat offenders are truly held accountable so that we can keep our communities safe.
And, finally, we requested continuing financial support to manage the international asylum seeker international crisis that has landed at our city’s front door. Although our proactive measures have helped reduce the number of asylum seekers in our care from a high of 69,000 in January 2024 to less than 47,000 today, we have still spent more than $7 billion to care for newcomers over just three fiscal years and anticipate spending billions more in the years to come.
All our asks of Governor Hochul and the state Legislature build on our administration’s track record of success. Last year, we celebrated back-to-back record-breaking years for producing and connecting New Yorkers with new, affordable homes. We also passed our “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan — the most significant pro-housing reform in our city’s history. Governor Hochul and the state’s support, combined with our generational zoning reforms, will lead to the creation of over 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years across every neighborhood throughout the five boroughs. This is key to making New York City more affordable and livable for working-class families.
But we know the cost of living across our city is still too high. Working-class New Yorkers must also be able to afford groceries, medicine, transportation, and other necessities. Every penny counts for our families. To help them, we have helped put more than $30 billion back into the pockets of working-class people.
Even as we fight for a better future, our city remains strong and continues to make progress. Crime is down, both on our streets and in the subways. In 2024, homicides and shootings reduced for the third consecutive year — and are both down double digits since we came into office. Moreover, our January crime statistics are now out, and for the second month in a row, overall crime in our city is down by double digits.
We also currently have an all-time high number of jobs in our city after we broke the record for the most jobs in New York City’s history for the eighth time over the course of our administration. And — this is important — unemployment has dropped in all demographics, with Black and Hispanic unemployment both down more than 20 percent since we came into office.
Despite these wins, we recognize there is more work to be done. We will continue to work with Governor Hochul and the state Legislature in the fight to make New York a safer, more affordable city, and the best place to live and raise a family for generations to come.
