A $112.4 billion budget was agreed to on Friday by New York City mayor Eric Adams and the head of the city council. The agreement included $800 million more in spending than Adams’ most recent proposal in April.

The two sides were able to avoid many controversial cuts to libraries, cultural institutions and early childhood education that were included in the April proposal. 

“We have done our job,” Adams said at a Friday press conference, “and will continue to do our job the right way and deliver for the people of this city, working-class people who have often been ignored.”

The budget cuts, which were the subject of a long and arduous debate among city officials, were not able to be avoided altogether. The agreement only adds $20 million to early childhood education, for example, which is still slated to receive $150 million less in funding than last year.

“We did over $7.9 billion in savings. We restored $349 million,” Adams said, referring to the spending reductions that helped the city balance the budget. “We showed fiscal responsibility.”

The new budget agreement will be the largest in New York City history, up over $5 billion from the previous agreement dictating spending for this year. New York’s City Council is expected to vote on the agreement on Sunday, one day before the July 1 deadline.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

As a result of the agreement, New York City libraries are expected to return to being open seven days a week, after closing on Sundays due to proposed cuts.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Adams for comment.

Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel revealed he will be voting for former president Donald Trump in November, despite the pair’s up-and-down relationship.

Thiel signaled his reluctant support at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Thursday. The Paypal CEO was an avid Trump advocate in 2016, but their relationship soured after he reportedly declined to endorse Trump, despite being asked by the 45th president to do so.

“If you hold a gun to my head, I’ll vote for Trump,” Thiel said in an on-stage interview. “I’m not going to give any money to his super PAC.”

The business mogul has been a major financier for Trump and Republican candidates in the past. He donated $1.25 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, and contributed over $35 million to 16 federal-level GOP candidates in 2022. Twelve of those 16 candidates won their election.

In 2023, Thiel said he would not fund any presidential races this November but did not express support for any candidate in an interview with the Atlantic in which he criticized Trump.

“There are a lot of things I got wrong,” he told the outlet. “It was crazier than I thought. It was more dangerous than I thought. They couldn’t get the most basic pieces of the government to work. So that was — I think that part was maybe worse than even my low expectations.”

Thiel has reportedly been unhappy with the direction of the Republican Party since late 2022, and is particularly critical of the GOP for focusing too much on abortion and transgender issues instead of spurring innovation through deregulation and international competition.

He spoke on his hope for the party to focus more on economic issues at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“I am proud to be gay, but most of all, I am proud to be an American,” he said onstage. “I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline, and nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to Thiel for comment.