NYC Public Library Action Network

Statement on Mayor Mamdani’s City Budget

Today, Mayor Mamdani released his Executive Budget for FY27. NYC PLAN is disappointed to see that it was $97 million short of his promise to fund libraries at 0.5% of the city expense budget. We will have a more detailed statement in the coming days. In the meantime, please follow NYC PLAN on social media to get plugged into our work.

The fight isn’t over. No more broken promises!

Take Action: Demanding half of 1% of the city budget for NYC’s Public Libraries

New Yorkers rely on our libraries now more than ever. Libraries provide more than just free books (although those are invaluable); some of these resources include: free and open climate-controlled public spaces for all city residents, giving our unhoused neighbors safe places to go in extreme heat and cold; language and bureaucracy assistance for non-English speaking immigrants, an NYC Food Delivery worker support program, and much more. NYC PLAN is asking all City Council members in NYC to commit to fighting for increasing public library funding to at least half of 1% of the annual city expense budget. There are three ways you can participate in making this demand:

1. Send an Email to Your City Council Member

Send our demand letter to your City Council Member. This takes 30 seconds, so text your friends and ask them to do it too!

2. Call Your City Councilmember

Use our guide and script to call your City Councilmember

3. Set up a Meeting with Your City Council Member

Fill out this Google Form and we’ll follow up with a how-to guide on meeting with your City Council member to make sure they know about our demand.

Our Core Values

To amplify, strengthen, and progress the futures of New York City’s three public library systems through community-led organizing, action, and increased funding.

We believe that

• Libraries are radical
  • To pursue education and critical thought is a radical act.
  • Public libraries are thus inherently political spaces: they provide
    resources for people of all ages, backgrounds, and ways of life.
• Commons are the model for the future
  • Public libraries are a model for the power of the public commons to
    build the emancipatory and liberatory futures our communities
    deserve.
• Care and community are priorities
  • NYC’s public libraries offer a model for how cities can educate, care
    for, and provide sustainability for all people, regardless of financial
    circumstances, race, disability, or legal status.
• Libraries must be decarceral
  • Libraries must be anti-carceral to ensure that they are spaces for all
    people.
• Abundance is the future
  • We build more through abundance than austerity. An abundant
    future is ours if we fight for it.