Speaker Julie Madden outlines affordability agenda targeting healthcare, insurance, procurement and housing

Council Speaker Julie Madden used remarks at an Association for a Better New York (ABNY) event to present a broad affordability plan that she said will guide the City Council’s work into 2026.

Madden said rising public‑sector healthcare costs are squeezing the city budget and families. "Currently 10% of the New York City budget is spent on public sector healthcare. It's about $11,000,000,000 a year," she said, noting that figure was about $6,000,000,000 five years earlier and that the council has identified opportunities to save "upwards of $2,000,000,000 a year" by using the city’s purchasing power.

The speaker credited a council bill that created the city’s Office of Healthcare Accountability and said that work has led to a new city health plan that could save taxpayers "up to $1,000,000,000 dollars per year" while maintaining current care levels for workers and retirees.

Madden turned that model toward insurance markets, arguing that surging premiums across homeowners, auto and liability insurance are major barriers to affordability and housing development. "We are going to establish an Office of Insurance Accountability…an insurance accountability advocate to assist consumers with unfair claim denials or unreasonable delays," she said, framing the office as a transparency and consumer‑assistance measure.

On procurement, Madden said the city’s contracting practices widened during the pandemic: "The city procures over $42,000,000,000 in goods and services each and every year," she said, adding that emergency no‑bid contracts exceeded $7,000,000,000 during the pandemic and that changes in recent administrations expanded emergency procurement for asylum‑related contracts to about $4,000,000,000 per year. She announced council legislation to limit emergency contracts to 30‑day terms and require a 15‑day submission deadline to the controller.

Madden also described a proactive housing strategy that looks beyond reacting to land‑use applications: the council is surveying neighborhoods and reviewing more than 1,000 city‑owned sites (DCAS inventory) and roughly 215 public library branches for potential affordable housing development. She cited the Queens Central Library as an example where about 400 units could be built above the branch while also allowing for library capital improvements.

Small‑business relief and regulatory streamlining were other pillars. Madden said past reforms she led at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection included 30 reforms to lower fines and a 30‑day cure period for non‑safety violations; the council plans to extend this relief across major fine‑assessing agencies, expand automation for licensing interactions and make outdoor dining year‑round to help small businesses.

The speaker framed the agenda as part of job creation and economic competitiveness: she warned New York has lost businesses and jobs relative to peers and said workforce development should be elevated to a central economic strategy.

Madden closed by urging private‑public partnerships and data‑driven evaluation of results, saying success will be measured by implemented legislation, agency execution and performance metrics rather than by rhetoric alone.