NYC Ballot Propositions

New York City · Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The back of your ballot has five changes to the City Charter. Each one makes a city process faster by cutting a step: a hearing, a vote, or a review. This guide shows each process step by step, what it cuts, and what the groups for and against it say.

Proposed by: the Commission on Government Efficiency, appointed by Mayor Mamdani You can vote Yes or No on each one separately

The five proposals at a glance

	Proposal	Makes faster	What it cuts or moves
1	Sidewalk cafés and public space	Café approval: 8 months → 2	Required hearings, newspaper ads, the Council's café veto
2	City contracts	Contract awards: about 30 days	A long one-size form, one public hearing, some mayoral sign-offs
3	Street safety, city land, city offices	Street projects about ⅓ faster; land sales 7 months → 3	Council votes on small land sales and office leases; advance notice on street projects
4	Building permits	One portal instead of up to 18 agencies	Waterfront permits move from Small Business Services to Buildings
5	Rainy Day Fund	Adds a 12% savings target (≈ $10B)	Nothing cut. Critics say the target is too low.

How to read the step diagrams: Step today Step if Yes passes Becomes optional Step removed

What about money?

The commission did not publish a total dollar savings for any proposal, and none of them has an official fiscal estimate. The figures it did give measure different things, so they can't be added up.

	Dollar figure	What it measures	Who it affects
1	Up to $1,500 per permit	Newspaper ads applicants no longer pay for. The commission's summary says up to $1,800 in application costs.	Each business or owner applying
2	No estimate	The city buys $42.3 billion a year in goods and services. Contractors waiting on payment often borrow and pay interest, but no total is given.	Contractors, especially nonprofits
3	$200 million+ in revenue	One-time money from selling small surplus lots and development rights. This is new income, not savings.	The city budget
4	No estimate	The commission cites time and complexity, not dollars.	Builders and homeowners
5	$10.1 billion target	12% of about $84 billion in tax revenue. Money set aside, not saved. The fund holds $1.97 billion today.	The city in the next downturn

Sources: the commission's final report (Props 1 to 3); the Comptroller's April 2026 report Strengthening the City's Rainy Day Fund (Prop 5).

Proposal 1 · Public space

Sidewalk cafés, ramps and benches could get approved in weeks instead of months

Businesses and property owners need a permit to put things on the sidewalk. This removes required hearings and newspaper ads, and ends the City Council's power to reject sidewalk cafés.

On the ballot: “Simplify process to use public space for uses such as ramps, planters, and cafes”

How a sidewalk café gets approved

How long it takes · commission estimate

The money

Applicants pay up to $1,500 for required newspaper notices, sometimes more than the yearly permit fee itself. One restaurant owner told the commission their full outdoor-dining process cost about $70,000, though this proposal changes only part of that process. There is no estimate of savings to the city.

Where groups stand

For

Restaurant ownersFaster approval, and no paying for newspaper ads.

Reinvent AlbanyStrongly supportsCalls it a straightforward fix for outdoor dining, ramps and benches.

Citizens Union · Regional Plan Association · Citizens Budget CommissionSupport the faster process.

Against

Common Cause New YorkSays it removes “meaningful opportunities” for New Yorkers and elected officials to weigh in on how public space is used.

Your vote

Proposal 2 · City contracts

Shorter paperwork for city contractors, and a procurement board that must meet

The city spends roughly a third of its budget on outside contractors, many of them nonprofits running services. This trims the forms they fill out and lets the Mayor hand off some big-contract approvals.

On the ballot: “Require quarterly meetings of the Procurement Policy Board.”

How a city contract gets awarded

Also: the yearly plan for service contracts no longer gets a public hearing. The plan is still published.
Also: the Procurement Policy Board, which writes contracting rules, must meet at least every three months starting Jan. 1, 2027. Today it has no required schedule.

How long it takes · median, announcement to award

The commission estimates 12%, or about 30 days, saved. 12% of the full 387-day median would be about 46 days, so the estimate likely covers only part of the process.

The money

No dollar estimate. The city bought $42.3 billion in goods and services in fiscal 2025. The commission says human-services contractors can wait a year or more to be paid and often take out loans to cover the gap, but it doesn't put a number on that interest.

Where groups stand

For

Reinvent AlbanyEspecially backs quarterly board meetings and questionnaires tailored to each industry.

Common Cause New York · Citizens UnionSupport it as a good-government reform.

Skeptical

Nonprofit providers and some city officialsDoubt it will make contracting much easier or speed up payments.

Organized oppositionNone found.

Your vote

Proposal 3 · Streets, land, offices

Three separate changes in one yes-or-no vote

Street safety projects, sales of small city-owned lots, and leases for city offices would all move with fewer approvals. You can't vote for one part and against another. The ballot text describes only the land part.

On the ballot: “Fast track disposition of unused City property with approval from City Planning Commission.”

Part 1: Street safety projects · bike lanes, bus lanes, crossings

Part 2: Selling small, unused city lots

Also: slivers of land too small to build on could be sold to the neighbor without a public auction. This becomes permanent at the end of 2030.

Part 3: Leasing offices for city workers

The money

The commission says the land changes could bring in more than $200 million by selling small surplus lots and development rights. That's one-time revenue, not savings. It also cites one estimate that today's process for moving development rights off a landmark costs an applicant up to $750,000. Only about 6% of the city's roughly 1,500 vacant lots qualify for the faster track. No dollar figure is given for street safety or office leasing.

Where groups stand

For

Most good-government groupsSupport faster safety fixes and putting empty city land to use.

Reinvent AlbanySupports Part 1 onlyStrongly backs the street safety, bike lane and bus lane changes.

Against

Reinvent AlbanyOpposes the question as writtenSays voters shouldn't decide “an agglomeration of unrelated topics” in one question, and that it could face a legal challenge.

Municipal Art SocietyOpposes the proposal.

Groups opposed to bike lanesOppose fast-tracking street redesigns.

Your vote

Proposal 4 · Building permits

One front door for construction permits

Builders and homeowners now chase approvals from many agencies one by one. This requires the Department of Buildings to build one shared permit system that every agency uses, and moves waterfront permits to Buildings.

On the ballot: “Create centralized construction permits hub to simplify permitting.”

Who an applicant deals with · about 40 approvals across 18 agencies, per Reinvent Albany

How a building permit gets approved

The money

No dollar estimate. The commission argues the savings come from less time spent filing and waiting, but it doesn't quantify them.

Where groups stand

For

Reinvent AlbanyStrongly supportsConsolidates about 40 approvals from 18 agencies into one hub.

Against

Organized oppositionNone found. City & State calls it the least controversial of the five.

Worth knowingThe hub doesn't have to be finished until 2030.

Your vote

Proposal 5 · Reserves

A savings goal for the city's Rainy Day Fund

The city's emergency savings fund, created by voters in 2019, has no target today. This sets a goal of 12% of last year's tax revenue, about $10 billion, and requires a plan to get there. It doesn't require the city to make deposits.

On the ballot: “Set target amount of money to hold in reserve funds, including rainy day fund”

How full the fund is · billions of dollars, against about $84 billion in yearly tax revenue

The Rainy Day Fund held $1.97 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. Proposal 5 lets "other reserves" count toward the 12%. The largest is the $5.2 billion Retiree Health Benefit Trust, which brings the total to about $7.2 billion. The Comptroller argues that trust should not be used as a rainy day fund. Why 16%? In the city's last two recessions, tax revenue ran below trend by about 10% of a year's revenue by the second year and about 16% by full recovery. Figures from the Comptroller's April 2026 report.

How the rules would work

Where groups stand

For

Citizens UnionSupports, wants more“You shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” says Ben Weinberg.

Common Cause New YorkSupports, wants moreSays it doesn't go far enough, but backs it.

Against

Citizens Budget CommissionSays 12% is too low. The Comptroller recommends 16%. Its president, Andrew Rein, plans to vote no.

Reinvent AlbanyCalls it too weak and backs the Citizens Budget Commission's six proposed fixes.

Your vote

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