The progressive People’s Plan campaign on January 29 endorsed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s directive ordering city agencies to designate agency-level chief savings officers and report back on internal efficiencies, calling the move a measured alternative to the across-the-board budget cuts favored by his predecessor.
In a statement attributed to the campaign, the group said asking agencies to closely examine their own operations — rather than defaulting to repeated programs to eliminate the gap, the recurring cost-cutting exercises known as PEGs — reflects the seriousness of the city’s fiscal situation and a commitment to transparency. The campaign characterized the directive as a response to what it described as a deficit of more than $12 billion and an opportunity to account for how public dollars are actually being spent.
The People’s Plan said it supports measures to use public money more effectively but insisted that efficiencies cannot come at the expense of New Yorkers’ basic needs. The campaign said it was encouraged by what it called the administration’s indication that cuts to essential services and affordability programs are not under consideration, and pledged to stay engaged to ensure those commitments hold.
The group drew a sharp contrast with the previous administration. Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the campaign said, budget decisions were often made behind closed doors, with repeated PEGs used as a first response and little clarity about their impact on services, workers or residents’ daily lives — an approach the People’s Plan said eroded trust and weakened the city’s ability to meet current challenges.
The campaign also laid out what it said were options to improve the city’s fiscal position without harming core services, including auditing what it called wasteful consultant and surveillance contracts, addressing excessive uniformed overtime, and collecting fines from large corporate bad actors.
Ultimately, the People’s Plan said, protecting New Yorkers from austerity will require action at the state level, including rebalancing cost-sharing between the state and the city and raising new revenue by taxing corporations and the ultra-wealthy. The campaign called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to enact those measures.
