Council Spent $1.5 Million on Anti-Ballot Measure Mailers Despite Electioneering Ban
The City Council spent more than $1.5 million taxpayer dollars over the last month to blitz voters with mailers opposing Mayor Eric Adams’ ballot proposals that would limit the Council’s ability to control housing development, records show.
Currently the Council must sign off on most major development projects in the city. If a Council member opposes a specific development within their district, the Council usually honors their position and rejects the project in question, and Council members often use the threat of rejection to extract concessions.
The ballot proposals, created by a charter revision commission Adams convened, include provisions that would take the Council out of the game entirely with certain developments that build permanently affordable housing or in neighborhoods that to date have not permitted more than a handful of units.
The use of public resources to promote political causes, known as electioneering, is strictly forbidden under the city charter. In fact the charter specifies that public servants may not use government funds “for a public message that contains an electioneering message,” which is defined as “a statement designed to…support or oppose a particular referendum question.”
Over the last three weeks, the Council spent $206,798 on printing materials and $1,295,411 on postage to mail out tens of thousands of mailers, according to data THE CITY obtained from the council via the Freedom of Information Law.
By comparison, the Council spent $726,384 on ballot mailers last year, opposing proposals put forward by the first Adams-convened Charter Revision Commission.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/31/affordable-housing-ballot-measures-council-electioneering/