Chair Lee opens FY27 Executive Budget Hearing for FDNY
Chair Lee opens the second FY27 Executive Budget Hearing of the day for the Fire Department of New York, joined by Chair Joann Ariola of the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, and welcomes Commissioner Bonsignore and her team.
Okay, so good afternoon and welcome to the second FY27 Executive Budget Hearing for the day, focusing on the Fire Department of New York.
Councilmember Linda-Lee, and I am pleased to be joined by my colleague, Councilmember and Chair of the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, Joann-Ariola.
Today we have been joined by Councilmember Brewer, Councilmember Wong, Councilmember Palladino, Councilmember Banks, and I believe that's it.
Okay, so welcome to our amazing FDNY Commissioner and you and your team, and thank you all for joining us today to answer any questions.
On May 12, 2026, the administration released the executive financial plan for FY27 to FY30 with a proposed FY27 budget of $124.7 billion.
The FDNY's proposed FY27 budget of $2.67 billion.
Represents 2.1% of the administration's proposed FY27 budget and the executive plan, and this is an increase of 23.8 million or 9.9%
from the 2.65 billion originally budgeted in the FY27 preliminary plan.
This increase results from several actions, increased fire prevention staffing funding, 14 new fire inspectors, 84 additional civilian staffing, and an increase of approximately $92 million in EMS projected revenue.
As of April 26, FDNY's headcount was 562 positions less than their fiscal 26 budgeted headcount.
In the Council's preliminary budget response, we called on the Mayor to add $28 million to FDNY in revenue re-estimates in two areas, the foreign fire insurance tax and fire prevention liens.
In addition, we called on the administration to address the chronic pay disparity for emergency medical service workers, chronic overtime spending, and the ongoing EMS staffing crisis impairing the city's response time.
We were pleased to see that our request for the revenue re-estimates were included in the plan, but the issue surrounding pay parity remains to be solved.
EMS workers respond to the same life-threatening emergencies as their firefighting colleagues, yet continue to earn significantly less, not just compared to FDNY firefighters, but compared to EMS personnel in virtually every other major city in the country.
The result is an attrition crisis averaging nearly
8.3% annually, leaving the department perpetually understaffed.
The council proposed $50 million in baseline funding to begin closing this gap, and the executive budget does not include this investment.
I look forward to hearing from the commissioner on when New York City's EMS workforce can expect to be compensated in a manner that reflects the value of the work that they do.
And now I want to turn it over to my co-chair for this hearing, Joann-Ariola, for her opening statement.