Press Release: Public Libraries Still Underfunded in Mayor Mamdani’s 2027 Executive Budget

For questions or comments please contact
Hilarie Ashton (hilarie dot ashton at gmail dot com)
or
Michael Kranz (mjkranz at proton dot me)

NYC Public Library Action Network (PLAN) is disappointed to see that public libraries did not receive their due in Mayor Mamdani’s 2027 Executive Budget. The budget is a step in the right direction as it allocates 0.42% to public libraries, which is more than the 0.39% in the preliminary budget of February 17. But this is still well short of the Mayor’s campaign promise to allocate 0.5% of the city budget to its public libraries, a promise he reiterated in December 2025 while standing in front of cameras at the Greenpoint Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

New York’s three public library systems aren’t just a crown jewel of the city’s cultural power; they are also a vital service and a crucial lifeline for millions of New Yorkers who rely on them not only for books but for internet access, for a warm place to sit in the brutal New York winter, for COVID tests and masks, or for language classes. These services are most needed in the city’s less prestigious zip codes, where library hours are often shorter and infrastructure is often in worse shape; Underfunding the libraries will disproportionately impact the city’s poorest residents. Libraries are also bastions of history, science, and free thought. To underfund public libraries at a time when public services, commons, and intellectual integrity are all under attack is unacceptable and unforgivable. 

NYC PLAN, along with the city’s other library advocacy groups, its library workers, and its many committed patrons, will continue to fight and advocate for our public libraries. We remain uncompromising in our demand for a dedicated 0.5% of the city’s budget for libraries, this year and throughout Mayor Mamdani’s term, as we were promised.