Opinion: Restore AIM funding in this year’s state budget

From Kingsbridge to Kew Gardens, our neighborhoods reflect the very best of New York City: hardworking families, small businesses and immigrant communities that fuel our economic growth. Our borough, and our city, help power this state's economy. Yet for over a decade, we have been cut out of critical aid from Albany that every other municipality in the state receives – funding that should support our city's workers, families and infrastructure. In the face of a fiscal crisis that threatens our entire city, it's time for Albany to reverse these long-standing cuts and restore the funding our city's residents rightfully deserve.

For decades, the state has provided Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, or AIM – funding that helped cities across New York pay for essential services like education, sanitation, public safety and local infrastructure. AIM was designed to ensure municipalities had the resources they needed to support residents and maintain strong local economies. But in 2010, the state eliminated AIM funding for New York City. And what began as a temporary measure during the Great Recession became a permanent exclusion. Even as the state’s fiscal health improved, the city's funding was never restored. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo kept AIM funding out of New York City, leaving us the only municipality shut out.

This exclusion is difficult to justify given New York City’s role as the economic engine of the state. Between 2010 and 2024, the city’s economy more than doubled – rising 110%, while the state’s economy rose 68%. Yet we receive far less back than we send to the capital. New York City contributes 54.5% of state revenue, but we only receive 40.5% back. In Fiscal Year 2022 alone, our city sent $68.8 billion in revenue to Albany, but received $47.6 billion back – a $21.2 billion dollar chasm. And since the 2021 tax hike, our city's contributions have only grown, with NYC workers and businesses contributing an additional $13.8 billion to state coffers.

Those contributions have helped put the state in a strong fiscal position. Since 2021, New York has run an average annual surplus of more than $10 billion. As the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute recently observed, “New York City, which is responsible for over 50% of statewide economic activity, has a fair claim to this revenue.”

Our city's AIM cuts are far from isolated. Over the past decade, the state steadily reduced or eliminated other forms of support that once helped New York City. The restrained Adult Shelter Cap shifted roughly $500 million in costs onto the city. Albany also cut $327 million in foster care aid, reduced food and housing assistance for low-income families by $193 million, slashed $65 million in rental assistance support and shifted roughly $480 million in Metropolitan Transportation Authority costs to the city. Taken together, these changes represent billions of dollars in costs that have been transferred from the state to New York City taxpayers over the past decade.

Today, as New York City's new mayor grapples with the impact of years of fiscal mismanagement, we must come together to support and rebuild the city's fiscal health. Years of structural imbalance and an inability to raise our own taxes are placing pressure on the city’s budget, threatening the services residents rely on every day – from sanitation and safety to housing assistance and public education.

Restoring AIM funding would be a meaningful first step toward correcting this imbalance. Had the program simply grown at a modest 2% annually – far below the pace of inflation – New York City would receive roughly $423 million in AIM aid this year. That funding could help stabilize the city’s finances and support essential services for millions of residents.

Albany has long recognized the importance of supporting municipalities across New York. It’s time for that commitment to extend to the state’s largest city as well. New York City helps drive the prosperity of our entire state. Ensuring that the city receives its fair share of state support isn’t just good policy – it’s essential to protecting New York’s economic future.