Menin told amNewYork recent revisions to the home care workers bill had changed the equation.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the revisions we\u2019ve made to the bill,\u201d she said, \u201d it would actually bring the cost down and not put a cost on the city of New York.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
She made a similar argument about the Council\u2019s push to raise paraprofessionals\u2019 starting pay by $10,000. Menin said the city is spending $1.3 billion a year on Carter cases, in which parents seek private-school placements because public schools are not providing required services for students with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy hiring more paraprofessionals, we would reduce the cost of Carter cases by potentially hundreds of millions of dollars a year,\u201d she said. She also argued that higher wages for paraprofessionals would circulate back into the local economy, saying the Council\u2019s financial analysis found the raises would add about $90 million in economic activity.<\/p>\n
How Menin responded to Mamdani\u2019s budget<\/p>\n
Menin tied those claims to the broader budget message that has defined much of her first three months. Asked about Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s criticism of the Council\u2019s budget response, she sidestepped the personal dimension and defended the substance, noting that the budget was \u201cnot any one person\u2019s budget\u201d but the product of a Council team of more than 20 members, and argued the focus should be on \u201csubstance rather than personalizing anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t make any cuts to the budget,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not cut services at all. What we did is, we found savings.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
She pointed to libraries and cultural organizations as areas where the Council restored proposed cuts and said lawmakers had identified \u201cwaste\u201d and \u201cefficiencies\u201d elsewhere in the budget.<\/p>\n
That argument has been central to the Council\u2019s broader case against Mamdani\u2019s preliminary budget. In its April 1 response, the Council said the mayor\u2019s plan relied on a 9.5% property-tax increase, reserve drawdowns and the failure to baseline about $1.1 billion in previously funded services and programs. <\/p>\n
The Council said it had identified about $6 billion in alternative resources over two fiscal years through re-estimates, efficiencies, savings and other revenue enhancements.<\/p>\n
![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776874749_131_DSC_5266.jpg\" "\\"Speaker")
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin at the launch of the District 2 Pre-K and 3-K Center on the Upper East Side, Feb. 19, 2026.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n
Menin cited Department of Education contracting as one example of where those savings could come from, noting that the city spends $12 billion a year on outside contracts and that the Council had proposed savings from no-bid, non-competitive, and duplicative services. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are common-sense areas of savings for the budget,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
The Council\u2019s formal budget response put the DOE contract budget even higher, at nearly $12.9 billion across more than 6,300 contracts, and called for a closer review of non-essential and non-competitive spending.<\/p>\n
Menin is making that case as Mamdani and other critics argue the Council is trying to have it both ways \u2014 claiming fiscal discipline while backing proposals that could prove expensive. Recent coverage has focused on that tension, especially around Menin\u2019s opposition to a broad property-tax hike and the Council\u2019s support for proposals like rental voucher expansion and the paraprofessional pay bill. <\/p>\n
At the same time, Menin has not opposed every revenue idea; she backed Hochul\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax proposal as a narrower way to raise money without hitting working New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Later in the interview, Menin returned to the same core point, saying the Council had been \u201ccrystal clear that we are not making any service cuts whatsoever\u201d and that the next phase of negotiations was to \u201croll up our sleeves and do the work to effectuate these savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political headaches<\/p>\n
The budget fight has unfolded alongside a set of political headaches that have complicated Menin\u2019s opening stretch.\n<\/p>\n