Mamdani Budget Cuts $29M From NYC Public Libraries Despite Campaign Promise; Claims Fiscal Reality Has Joined the Administration
Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who praised New York’s public libraries as “critical” throughout his campaign, urged New Yorkers to read at them during the January snowstorm, and specifically promised to end the “perennial budget dance” that turns libraries into a bargaining chip, has proposed cutting $29 million from the city’s three library systems in his preliminary budget — a reversal that library advocates are describing as a betrayal and that City Hall is describing as “fiscal reality,” which is the phrase politicians use when the gap between what they promised and what they are doing requires a noun.
What He Said Then, and What He’s Doing Now
The timeline is not flattering. During the campaign: Mamdani praised libraries. As mayor-elect in December: “We’re not going to be doing a dance around things that are critically important to New Yorkers.” In January, during a snowstorm: he urged New Yorkers to stay home and check out the bestseller “Heated Rivalry” from the public library, generating a surge in e-book downloads and considerable goodwill in the library community. In his preliminary budget, filed this week: a $29 million cut to the Brooklyn, New York, and Queens Public Library systems, which would force branch service reductions across the city.
“If you’re just going to say ‘Oh, I love the library,’ but you’re not actually supporting them, then that’s a real disappointment and, frankly, bulls—,” said Abby Emerson of the NYC Public Library Action Network. She said this using the exact word, which Gothamist printed in full, and which has the distinction of being the most accurate thing anyone has said about this situation since the budget was filed.
City Hall spokesperson Dora Pekec offered the standard explanation: the budget crisis “inherited” from the previous administration compels an “all-of-government approach” to balance the budget, and the preliminary budget is the beginning of a months-long process. This explanation is technically accurate. The preliminary budget is indeed the beginning of a process. The process involves the City Council restoring the cuts. The City Council restoring the cuts involves a negotiation. The negotiation is the dance. The dance that Mamdani specifically promised to end is the dance that has now begun. The libraries understand. They have done this dance before. They have a very good collection of books about disappointment.
The Broader Budget Picture
The Mamdani administration inherited a fiscal situation shaped by federal policy changes, the end of pandemic-era relief funding, and structural budget pressures that exist in every large American city regardless of mayoral political affiliation. Federal healthcare cuts will put hundreds of thousands of low-income New Yorkers at risk of losing coverage. SNAP eligibility changes will affect up to 230,000 city residents. The Trump administration’s deportation efforts have disrupted the city’s workforce and tax base. Against this backdrop, every line item in the city budget is under pressure, and the library line is one of many that did not survive the preliminary draft intact.
This context is real and relevant. It does not make the library cuts politically comfortable for a mayor who made libraries a visible part of his public persona and who told advocates specifically that the era of using libraries as a budget bargaining chip was over. The context explains the decision. It does not dissolve the promise.
The Library Community, Mobilizing
NYC PLAN, the library advocacy group that formed during the Adams administration’s library battles and successfully fought to restore Sunday hours, has already launched a campaign against the cuts. Members have described the preliminary budget as “terrible” for libraries and have scheduled rallies and an online campaign. They are, at this point, a veteran organization at fighting city hall over library funding, which means they know the process, know the pressure points, and know that the preliminary budget is not the final budget.
The three New York City library systems — New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Public Library — collectively serve millions of New Yorkers annually across hundreds of branches, providing services that range from book lending to free Wi-Fi, immigrant services, job training, and the specific urban function of a warm, free, public space that imposes no consumption requirement. Libraries are, as Mamdani correctly identified on the campaign trail, one of the last truly free public institutions in a city where almost everything costs something. He was right about that. He is now cutting them. Both things are true.
What Happens at the End of the Dance
The preliminary budget goes to the City Council. The Council holds hearings. Library advocates testify. The cuts become a negotiating point. The mayor and Council negotiate. Some version of the cuts is restored, typically in the final budget agreed in June. The libraries open on Sundays. Abby Emerson tells the press it was a hard fight but they won. The mayor’s office says they were always committed to libraries. Everyone goes home. The dance ends. The same dance begins next year. Mamdani promised this would not happen. It is happening. The libraries are patient. They have been doing this longer than anyone currently in City Hall, and their books will still be there when this particular political moment has been shelved.
For more on promises, processes, and the space between them, see The Onion.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/