As a candidate, Zohran Mamdani promised to fund town’s three library programs with half of 1% of town’s funds, vowing to finish the standard funds dance and monetary uncertainty that put libraries on the center of tense negotiations with the Metropolis Council.
However as mayor, Mamdani’s government funds proposal coughs up simply .42% of the funds — lower than his predecessor, Eric Adams had budgeted — and advocates younger and outdated say the annual funds cha cha remains to be taking part in.
Members of the NYC Public Library Motion Community, or NYC PLAN, rallied Tuesday on Metropolis Corridor’s steps forward of an government funds listening to on the libraries. The group is made up of library staff and others pushing for extra money for the Queens, New York, and Brooklyn public library programs.
“We demand that you simply maintain the promise that you simply made,” Anastazia Neely, a librarian on the New York Public Library’s Countee Cullen department in Harlem, stated on the rally. She and others say libraries would obtain a further $97 million with the 0.5% Mamdani promised.
“We demand 50 cents of each $100 for libraries — not by the tip of your mayoral time period, not at some date sooner or later, not within the subsequent cycle, however proper now,” she stated.
Beneath the present government funds proposal, libraries obtain 42 cents for each $100 within the metropolis funds. That’s lower than the present funds set by Mayor Adams, which supplies libraries 45 cents for each $100.
“If you happen to let him out swag you on this, we’ll by no means hear the tip of it,” Neely stated of the previous mayor. “We demand these eight cents.”
Lauren Comito, co-founder of City Librarians Unite, stated she believed Mamdani when he stated he would finish what’s generally known as the “funds dance” of cuts and restorations through the funds course of.
“I’ve a tough time saying how heartbroken I’m, that I believed the promise, that after 26 years of cuts and combating, that I believed it,” she stated.
A spokesman for the mayor didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Mamdani launched his government funds earlier this month, and he held an occasion at a Brooklyn library to rejoice the $31.7 million he added to the funds for the three programs.
However that fell in need of his promise of 0.5% of the $124 billion funds — a objective he stated will nonetheless be met, sometime.
“I completely suppose that there can be some extent at which we get there, as a result of it’s a objective that I proceed to consider in, and it’s one which I’ve stated that we are going to accomplish by the point that I’m carried out being the mayor of town,” Mamdani stated, though he didn’t decide to a selected 12 months.
The heads of the three library programs all testified on the Metropolis Council on Tuesday, cautiously eager for cash for employees, applications, and upkeep whereas additionally thanking the mayor and Council for his or her assist.
Dennis Walcott, the president and CEO of Queens Public Library, stated their unmet want is within the tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, together with working and capital funds.
“We face escalating prices, equivalent to contractual and insurance coverage premiums, provide and upkeep wants, inflationary pressures, and surprising bills,” he stated. Circulation on the Queens libraries rose 25% final 12 months, and so they want cash for brand spanking new print books and e-materials, he stated.
Tony Marx, the pinnacle of the New York Public Library, stated that between July 1, 2025 and the present 12 months, his branches had misplaced 182 hours of service as a consequence of emergency repairs and upkeep.
“With extra funds in our emergency repairs funds, we are able to restrict these losses to supply extra constant, dependable service,” he stated, additionally citing elevated demand and prices of each bodily and e-books.
Their plea for extra funding within the Council aligned with that of half a dozen children who patiently waited for his or her probability to talk on the rally earlier within the day.
Isla Sobh, 9, is a part of the social justice artwork membership at her elementary faculty in Brooklyn.
“Every time I needed one thing from a bookstore or a web-based library, the bookstore is just too costly and the net library is on maintain,” she stated.
Logan Vanhoutte, 9, stated that “with out libraries, so many issues will disintegrate.”
After which, she provided a warning to the mayor — however metropolis time period limits.
“One factor for positive, in 2036, I will vote, and different fourth graders will too,” she stated. “Mayor Mamdani, in the event you don’t end this promise that you simply promised us, we’ll bear in mind.”
