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Rainy Day Fund

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Government Efficiency August 2026

A 12% Reserves Target Means $9.8 Billion

Ballot Question 5 sets a target for the City's reserves at 12% of tax revenue and requires OMB to publish a formula for getting there. The percentage is abstract until you put it against the tax base it is measured on. On FY2026's $81.3 billion, the target is $9.8 billion, and the pandemic shock it is meant to absorb cost the City $4.8 billion in a single year.

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The 12% target is roughly twice the revenue New York City lost in its worst recent year

City tax revenue by fiscal year, adopted budget, with the 12% reserves target drawn as a share of each year's base. Question 5 sets the target; deposits toward it still require appropriation in the budget.

  • City tax revenue
  • 12% reserves target
Source: NYC Open Data, Revenue Budget & Financial Plan Note: Adopted budget figures for revenue categorised as taxes, not audited actuals. The target segment is 12% of the same year's revenue, drawn to scale.

Why a target at all. New York City created its rainy day fund by referendum in 2019, and State law followed in 2020, but neither set a size, a deposit rule, or withdrawal criteria. Comptroller Mark Levine told the commission the fund lacks exactly those three things. Question 5 supplies a target and a required methodology, while leaving the actual deposit to the annual budget negotiation.

COGE heard the opposite case too, and it is a fair one. Economists and the City Council's own central staff warned the commission against rigid rules, arguing that mandatory deposits can force saving at precisely the moment money is needed, and that narrow withdrawal rules can leave reserves stranded during a real crisis. One testifier put it as “painful spending cuts while funds are sitting in a reserve.” The commission's answer was to require a published methodology rather than a fixed formula.

What is counted: the sum of adopted budget amounts for revenue in the TAXES category, by fiscal year, taking the latest publication available for each year. Where a fiscal year appears in several publications, the adopted tax total is consistent across them.

The target covers more than the rainy day fund. The amendment measures the 12% against total reserves, which include the Revenue Stabilization Fund, the General Reserve, the Retiree Health Benefit Trust, and the Capital Stabilization Reserve. This chart shows what the target amounts to in dollars, not the current balance of any one account.

Sources: NYC Open Data, Revenue Budget & Financial Plan; COGE Adopted Final Report (July 23, 2026).