Mayor Eric Adams vetoes four City Council bills

With roughly 50 days left in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams isn’t ready to put down his veto pen. On Friday, Adams vetoed four City Council bills. 

The vetoed legislation includes two bills that would expand pay equity reporting requirements to large private companies, a bill limiting how much certain housing voucher recipients have to contribute toward rent and a bill codifying the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and giving it new authorities in a bid to get nonprofits paid on time.

A spokesperson for the Adams administration confirmed that the vetoes have been sent. A spokesperson for the City Council said that the council is expected to override all four of them. The four bills all originally passed with veto-proof majorities on Oct. 9. 

“These vetoes are just the latest display of governing incompetence and a profoundly ignorant rejection of policies that would directly benefit working-class New Yorkers,” City Council spokesperson Julia Agos said in a statement. “By blocking these bills that strengthen pay equity, protect tenants from being rent burdened, and bring long-overdue accountability to the City’s contracting system, the mayor is once again abandoning the people he claims to represent.”

The pay equity bills are sponsored by Council Members Amanda Farías and Tiffany Cabán, the bill addressing housing voucher contribution limits is sponsored by Diana Ayala, and the Office of Contract Services bill is sponsored by Speaker Adrienne Adams.

The Adams administration suggested the Office of Contract Services bill would interfere with existing work being done to speed contract payments. “Unfortunately, Intro. 1248-B would stall this critical progress by creating a new office with an overly-rigid structure and without real power over city procurement, thus potentially splitting various contracting functions, sowing confusion over roles, and wasting valuable government resources,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. 

As for Ayala’s housing voucher legislation, the Adams administration pointed to a need to be fiscally responsible to ensure the CityFHEPS voucher program’s longevity. “The Adams administration has operated CityFHEPS in the best interests of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, and we have consistently maintained that the state and (Department of Social Services) – not the City Council – has the authority to regulate this program,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. 

The Adams administration called the pair of pay equity bills burdensome and argued they wouldn’t achieve their intended results because there isn’t a mechanism to force private employers to institute equitable pay. “While we support the intent of these two bills, this legislation imposes a burdensome and unnecessary data collection effort on New York City’s employers and businesses without meaningful results, which is why the mayor has vetoed these bills,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement.

There are just four stated meetings to go this year until Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes office and a new City Council speaker is appointed. Council members only have a limited time to pass legislation – and Mayor Adams only has limited time to veto anything he doesn’t want in play when the Mamdani administration sweeps into City Hall. Come January, any bills still in the legislative pipeline will have to be re-introduced.

The mayor and City Council have been locked in multiple fights over vetoed legislation – including over eight vetoes that members went on to override. Tensions have steadily intensified between the two wings of City Hall over the past four years. Just two months ago, the City Council overrode three of Adams’ vetoes pertaining to decriminalizing street vending and raising wages for grocery delivery workers. 

If the vetoes proceed, the City Council will officially receive them during their next stated meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday. At that point, members would have 30 days to override them.