Speaker Menon urges bolstering rainy day fund amid economic uncertainty

I won't list our whole exhaustive list that the council has prioritized in crucial areas of the city.

And the record speaks for itself.

Over the past decade, the Council's forecasts have the best performance in estimating the actual tax revenue available to the city.

And just as we have confidence in the Knicks, we are confident that this winning track record will continue.

But we also understand that forecasting is as much as an art as it is a science.

There's higher uncertainty we know in the economy, largely due to actions taken by those in Washington, D.C.

For that reason, the Council also believes that some of this nearly $2 billion surplus should be used to bolster the city's rainy day fund to protect our investments and city services from the inevitable downturn.

We've come a long way since the release of the preliminary plan.

The state budget has been adopted and the city is now receiving closer to its fair share of resources.

I hope that as a result we can move forward and adopt a budget that is both financially sound and also provides for the critical services that all New Yorkers require.

So we look forward to hearing from you today about the administration's fiscal year 2027 executive budget.

Thank you and I'm now going to turn it back over to Chair Lee.