New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams has launched an interactive online tool called Build-A-Budget that lets New Yorkers experiment with ways to balance the city budget, his office announced March 23 as state budget negotiations entered their final days and city budget talks got underway.
The office said the simulation is an accessible, interactive way for people to visualize how the city's money is spent, where it comes from and what goes into keeping the budget balanced without slashing services. Within the interface, users can raise and lower spending across agencies and initiatives and enact or reject revenue-raising measures at the state level, according to the office. Williams's office described the tool as a demonstration of what it called the need to increase revenue by taxing the city's richest residents in order to preserve services; independent coverage by BKReader noted the simulator addresses the projected Fiscal Year 2027 budget deficit and offers a menu of revenue options designed to close the gap. The tool is available at advocate.nyc.gov/BuildABudget.
Williams unveiled the tool as part of a city and state budget announcement, holding a media availability the morning of March 24 at 1 Centre Street North, according to his public schedule. The Public Advocate's office said he framed the launch around the state's looming budget deadline and what it described as a serious city budget gap. In a follow-up notice circulated March 27, the office reiterated that the tool was released “with the state budget deadline looming and the city facing a serious budget gap.”
Williams's budget-focused week extended beyond the tool. His schedule showed him speaking March 24 at a budget hearing of the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings at 250 Broadway, appearing that morning on PIX11's “Morning News,” joining a pre-taped NY1 “Rush Hour” interview and attending the People's Budget “Make 'Em Pay” launch party at 55 Broadway that evening. On March 25, his schedule listed him joining a budget hearing of the City Council's Committee on Immigration at City Hall and attending the Pakistani American Law Enforcement Society Eid celebration at 1 Police Plaza.
In a separate statement March 25, Williams welcomed the creation of the city's Office of Street Vendor Services. He said he worked closely with the Street Vendor Project to pass his bill establishing the office, and called having one of the project's leaders now head it “an exciting indicator of what's to come for New York City's smallest businesses.” The office's first executive director is former Street Vendor Project co-director Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, who was named to the post by Mayor Mamdani and SBS Commissioner Kenny Minaya. Williams said that in speaking with vendors about the barriers they face, he heard of long hours, threatened livelihoods, seized merchandise and penalties, while also seeing the drive of people trying to serve New Yorkers and support their families. He said the city can help vendors navigate obstacles to licensing, inconsistent enforcement and regulations that he said make it nearly impossible to operate sustainably, adding that street vendors provide some of the most affordable options for New Yorkers in an increasingly unaffordable city.
In a statement March 26, Williams condemned the United States' position on a United Nations vote on slavery and reparations. He said that at the United Nations the overwhelming majority of the world acknowledged the inhumanity of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the moral imperative to make reparations, and that America refused alongside just two other nations. The UN General Assembly resolution passed 123-3 with 52 abstentions, with the United States, Argentina and Israel the only nations voting against the measure declaring the slave trade a crime against humanity. Williams, who described himself as the highest-ranking Black elected city leader, said he stood with the president of Ghana at the African Burial Ground National Monument to mourn the past, and said the city and state are continuing what he called critical work on reparations and the fight for equity.
