Council Analysis Identifies Nearly $1.7 Billion in Potential Resources for FY 2026

 

Findings suggest the City can avoid tapping the Rainy Day Fund

Separate Council forecast shows relatively stronger revenue outlook than the Office of Management and Budget for FY 26 & 27

Speaker Julie Menin and Finance Chair Linda Lee released the New York City Council’s March 2026 Economic and Tax Revenue Forecast, alongside an initial analysis identifying nearly $1.7 billion in potential savings and additional revenue for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, which ends June 30.

The Council’s analysis suggests the City can maintain fiscal discipline and protect critical services without drawing down New York City’s Rainy Day Fund (formally the Revenue Stabilization Fund). In its Preliminary Budget released in February, the Administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed utilizing nearly $1 billion from the fund in the current fiscal year.

The proposed drawdown of the Rainy Day Fund would lead to a vote by the Council by the end of March through a Revenue and Expense Modification to the FY 2026 budget sent by the Administration on February 24.

The Rainy Day Fund was created in 2021 by the Administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Since its launch, it has gradually climbed to $2 billion and has never been drawn down, even during the recent migrant funding crisis.

Among the resources identified in the Council’s preliminary analysis, beyond current projections from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), are nearly $1.4 billion from debt service adjustments, realization of accrual savings from unfilled agency vacancies, and unrecognized interest earnings from entities such as the Retirees Health Benefits Trust and cash holdings.

“The Rainy Day Fund was created to help protect New Yorkers during a true fiscal emergency, and has never been tapped,” said Speaker Julie Menin. “Our analysis suggests we are not in such an emergency position today. The Council believes there are additional savings and revenue opportunities that can be identified through the budget hearing process, both for FY 2026 and 2027, and we will continue working with the Administration to ensure the City’s finances remain strong while protecting this critical safeguard.”

The Council’s March economic forecast estimates $386 million more in tax revenue than projected by the Mayor’s OMB for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, reflecting a stronger long-term outlook for the City’s finances. That difference excludes any increase to the City’s overall property tax rate.

The forecast projects the City’s tax revenues will continue to grow at an average of 4.7 percent annually from FY 2026 through FY 2030, which is lower than the 5.5 percent annual average tax revenue growth experienced over the decade of FY 2010 to FY 2019.

The full economic forecast report can be found here.

Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Workers

 

Four Co-Defendants Previously Pleaded Guilty for Their Roles in Compelling the Labor of H-2A Visa Recipients Throughout the Southeastern United States

Alexander Villatoro Moreno, age 53, also known as Quichi, pleaded guilty in federal court in Tampa, Florida, to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida had previously returned a six-count indictment against multiple defendants for their roles in the conspiracy, which victimized Mexican H-2A workers who, between 2015 and 2017, had worked in the United States harvesting fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products.

According to court documents, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants operated and managed Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), a farm labor contracting company, that functioned as a criminal enterprise compelling victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants fraudulently recruited Mexican nationals to come into the United States on short-term, H-2A, agricultural visas and misled the United States to secure visas for the victims. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants charged workers exorbitant recruitment fees to work for LVH and lied to the victims about how much they would be paid, the hours they would work, the working conditions and the reimbursement they would receive for paying recruitment fees and other expenses. The workers were then compelled to provide long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor, six to seven days a week, for far less pay than they were entitled to under the law.

In addition to the work conditions, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants used various coercive means to compel the victims’ labor, including imposing debts on workers; confiscating the workers’ passports; subjecting workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions; verbally abusing and humiliating the workers; threatening workers with arrest, jailtime and deportation; isolating workers by preventing them from interacting with anyone other than LVH employees; and threatening to physically harm the workers’ family members back in Mexico if the workers failed to comply with their demands.

When officials began investigating, Villatoro Moreno obstructed the federal investigation by helping to prepare false payroll information to conceal underpayments to the workers and distributing fake reimbursement receipts to the victims to make it appear that LVH was complying with the law by reimbursing the workers for their travel-related expenses.

Villatoro Moreno’s four co-defendants previously pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in the scheme. Bladimir Moreno, Alexander Villatoro Moreno’s brother, owned LVH and pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Efrain Cabrera Rodas and Christina Gamez, LVH supervisors, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act while Guadalupe Mendes Mendoza, another LVH supervisor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation. In 2022, Bladimir Moreno was sentenced to 118 months in prison and ordered to pay over $175,000 in restitution to the victims while Rodas and Gamez were sentenced to 41 months and 37 months in prison, respectively. Mendoza was also sentenced in 2022 to serve eight months of home detention and a $5,500 fine to be paid over 24 months of supervised release.

The Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, investigated the case. The Task Force received assistance from the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Colorado Legal Services Migrant Farm Worker Division, Legal Aid Services of Oregon Farmworker Program and Indiana Legal Services Worker Rights and Protection Project.

The Government of Mexico, including the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), provided significant assistance in the extradition of Villatoro Moreno to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Villatoro Moreno.

Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilyssa Spergel for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case. Former Trial Attorney and current Assistant U.S. Attorney Maryan Zhuravitsky for the District of Maryland also prosecuted the case.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Friends & Neighbors, 

 

Spring has sprung and it’s time to get out those Easter baskets, fancy hats, and pastel colors. It’s time for our annual Pelham Parkway Easter Egg Hunt!

 

This year, we’re thrilled to bring you an afternoon filled with music, games, face painter, popcorn, and of course, lots of Easter eggs. Here are the details: 

 

WHEN: Saturday, March 28, 2026

WHERE: Pelham Parkway Greenway (across from Peace Plaza)

TIME: 11:00AM - 2:00PM

 

Events like these are what makes our community so special. Come out, enjoy the afternoon, and spend time with old and new friends. 

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone then! 

 

In Gratitude, 

John Zaccaro, Jr. 

Partnerships for Parks - Learn to Care for Local Trees with the NYC Tree Map!

 

Willow oak street tree on Perry Ave in the Bronx, one of the "Great Trees of NYC", photo courtesy of NYC Parks.

Maples, Oaks, and More: The NYC Tree Map as a Stewardship Tool 

Do you look up as you walk through our city, curious about the trees? Join us for an interactive session hosted by Partnerships Academy exploring the NYC Tree Map, a free online tool developed by NYC Parks. We’ll hear from the deputy director of Digital Media at NYC Parks, Tom Hughes, about how the NYC Tree Map was designed and developed. You’ll then have time to use desktop computers to explore the NYC Tree Map and become familiar with navigating its features. We’ll conclude by hearing from members of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group Tree LC Crew about how they utilize this tool to organize and record their tree stewardship efforts.

This workshop is part of NYC Open Data Week, an annual festival of community-driven events organized to celebrate open public data. You can learn more here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 6–7:30 p.m.
St. John’s Recreation Center Media Lab
1251 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213

 

REGISTER NOW

Swiss Businessman Extradited to the United States Pleads Guilty to International Securities Fraud Scheme

 

A Swiss executive pleaded guilty today to participating in a multimillion-dollar securities fraud scheme after living abroad as a fugitive for nearly 11 years.

According to court documents, Martin Schlaepfer, 67, a Swiss national, identified himself to victims as the Chief Executive Officer of Malom Group AG, a purported Swiss investment company. Beginning as early as October 2009, Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators located in Switzerland and Las Vegas, Nevada, orchestrated a scheme in which they promoted investments that they knew to be fictitious. Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators told victims that, for an up-front payment, Malom would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans. To effectuate this scheme, the co-conspirators provided victims with fabricated bank documents purporting to show that Malom held hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas bank accounts. When victims wired their money into an escrow account controlled by the co-conspirators, the money was released and disbursed to, among others, Schlaepfer for his own personal use. As a result of the scheme, victims were defrauded of approximately $6 million.

Schlaepfer was indicted in December 2013. He was arrested in Italy in September 2024, pursuant to an Interpol Red Notice, and extradited to the United States in July 2025. Three of Schlaepfer’s co-conspirators, Anthony Brandel, James Warras and Sean Finn, were found guilty of conspiracy and multiple counts of wire fraud and securities fraud following separate jury trials in 2015 and 2020 and each sentenced to 87 months in prison. A fourth defendant, Joseph Micelli, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in 2015 and was sentenced to 60 months in prison. A fifth defendant, Hans-Jurg Lips, remains at large outside the United States. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Schlaepfer pleaded guilty to securities fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada made the announcement.

The FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office is investigating the case.

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE'S STATEMENT ON THE ONE-HOUSE STATE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS

 

"As we work across city government to address the budget emergency left by the last administration, I’m grateful that state legislative leaders are proposing revenue raising and cost shifting measures to help fill the gap. Modest increases in the corporate and mansion tax rates and reductions in the pass-through entity tax credit would make a significant impact on the current shortfall and better prepare us for the future. Increased funding to support class size mandates will ensure our students receive the personalized attention they need. I implore the governor to add her support to these proposals. 

"I also commend the Speaker and Majority Leader for including long-delayed funding that New York City needs to implement Raise the Age-related programming – money that was promised but never provided. To date, less than a third of the designated funds have been allocated, and New York City hasn’t received a dollar. This is a vital investment in the success of our young people and safety of our communities.

"I continue to believe that the most effective means of not only meeting this moment, but enabling transformational initiatives for the long term, is to raise income taxes on the ultra wealthy in our city – a small percentage increase for a tiny percentage of residents will empower us to stabilize our own financial situation and secure services for New Yorkers who feel anything but stable in this affordability crisis. We owe it to working families to keep up this fight for economic justice."

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR ZOHRAN KWAME MAMDANI ON ONE-HOUSE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS

Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani released the following statement in response to the One-House Budget Resolutions: 

 

“The legislature and I agree: we cannot bridge this budget deficit on the backs of working-class New Yorkers. I’m grateful that the Assembly and Senate One-House Budgets recognize the scale of the fiscal crisis facing New York City. I want to thank Speaker Heastie, Leader Stewart-Cousins and the Assembly and Senate Democratic conferences for having taken meaningful steps toward closing the deficit we inherited, including by asking more from the wealthiest New Yorkers and by creating a fairer balance in the city's fiscal relationship with the state.

 

“I’m also grateful to the legislature for extending the fare free bus pilot program in both One-Houses; as one in five New Yorkers struggle to pay for public transportation, it is essential we take bold action and build a transit system all New Yorkers can afford.

 

“The State’s support has also been integral to advancing universal child care, and I deeply appreciate Governor Hochul and the State legislature’s partnership to that end. However, we would not have been able to launch 2-K or begin to fix the issues plaguing 3-K without mayoral control. Mayoral control is key to delivering our affordability agenda, and I look forward to continuing to work with leaders in Albany to secure its extension.

 

“New York City is the economic engine of our state — restoring our city's fiscal health is an investment in the state’s economic wellbeing. I am encouraged and heartened by the relationship that we have built with Governor Hochul and the State legislature, and I look forward to continuing to review their proposals and build upon the work we have done together throughout this budget process.”  

ICE Asks Local Authorities in Florida Not to Release Criminal Illegal Alien Who is Charged with Aggravated Manslaughter for Death of 3-Year-Old Nephew

 

The child’s injuries included at least 17 strikes to the head, extensive bruising, intentional burns, a broken collarbone, a transected pancreas from blunt trauma, and several broken ribs

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer against Samuel Antonio Maldonado-Erazo, a 28-year-old criminal illegal alien from Honduras accused of savagely beating and ultimately killing his three-year-old nephew who was a U.S. citizen on March 4.

The three-year-old child’s injuries were consistent with sustained abuse. According to local reports, Maldonado-Erazo brought the child to work with him and ignored signs that the little boy was in extreme distress. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said the child’s injuries included at least 17 strikes to the head, extensive bruising, intentional burns, a broken collarbone, a transected pancreas from blunt trauma, and several broken ribs — one of which was completely detached from his spine. The child died at the hospital after someone called 911 to report that he was in cardiac arrest.

“This crime is absolutely sickening and underscores the importance of local authorities working with ICE to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “The Biden administration should have never RELEASED this monster into our communities.”

ICE lodged a detainer for Maldonado-Erazo on March 5 following his arrest to request local authorities notify ICE before his release. He illegally entered the U.S. in August 2021 and was immediately removed. In November 2021, he illegally re-entered the U.S., a felony, and was released into the country under the Biden administration’s catch-and-release policies. In May 2023, he was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge.