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By Katie Honan, THE CITY
New York City’s expansion of universal pre-k, some trash pickup, and library services have been slashed as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “extremely painful” cuts in a newly-announced budget modification that looks to trim the city’s spending.
Every agency will see 5% budget reductions this month, the mayor’s budget officials said, as the city faces slower tax revenue growth. Sources also told THE CITY there will be further cuts in a January 2024 modification.
Adams has warned residents for months of worsening budget cuts, but did not speak directly on Thursday about the latest changes. Instead, his budget officials briefed reporters virtually on the condition that they not be quoted directly.
Of the cuts, the mayor had said Tuesday, “it’s going to hurt, it’s going to hurt a lot.”
The modified budget reflects increased costs and spending since last winter’s projections, which caused a $7 billion deficit — forcing more cuts.
Adams has pinned much of the city’s financial woes on the asylum seeker crisis, as officials say more than 143,000 migrants have come to New York City over the last year and a half — many of them needing public assistance.
The city is still taking care of more than 60,000 asylum seekers in already overtaxed shelters and facilities across the city, as it is required to provide shelter to anyone under its “right to shelter” mandate.
The city predicts it will spend $11 billion on services and housing for migrants over the next two years, officials said — and plans to keep reducing those services, although they did not provide further details on how. City officials have already begun to shorten the length of time most can stay at city-run shelters.
“To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services,” the mayor said in a statement Thursday afternoon, adding his recurring plea to the federal government for more financial support.
“Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”
Services Slashed
Layoffs of city employees are not on the table, budget officials said, and Adams said in his statement that there would be “minimal disruption to services.”
But the cuts will nevertheless affect New Yorkers citywide, from summer camp programs to trash cleanup.
For the city Department of Education, it means a delay opening new 3-K and pre-k classes in The Bronx and on Staten Island by six months, officials said. More than $570 million has been cut over multiple years from the DOE, with up to $18 million in cuts to community schools over the current and next future year.
A hiring freeze and vacancy reduction — i.e. not filling open positions — will happen mainly at the DOE’s central office, officials said.
The city is also reducing hours and cutting Fridays for 30,000 middle schoolers for its Summer Rising program.
Libraries across the city will also see reduced hours and the end to Sunday services following the new cuts. Officials from the New York, Queens, and Brooklyn public libraries anticipate even more cuts in the future.
“Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library and The New York Public Library regret to announce that as a result of mid-year budget cuts, we must eliminate seven-day service across the city, including ending Sunday service at the vast majority of branches that currently offer it,” the three systems covering the five boroughs said in a joint statement. “We also will be reducing spending on library materials, programming, and building maintenance and repairs.”
The NYPD will also have to cut the next five upcoming academy classes for new recruits, without information on when they would resume. There are typically four classes each calendar year.
Even the city’s fight against rats, one of Adams’ obsessions, is being scaled back.
His “Get Stuff Clean” initiative — which invested $14.5 million into increased litter basket pickup, expanded camera enforcement to catch people dumping trash illegally, and rat exterminators, among other cleaning actions — has been slashed, officials said. The city is also eliminating funding for food scrap drop-off sites and community composting groups.
City officials are also planning a 20-month freeze on all new civilian hires within the sanitation department, putting the brakes on auto mechanics and other maintenance jobs, a source familiar with the city’s plans told THE CITY.
Whose Fault?
In a joint statement with City Council finance chair Justin Brannan, Speaker Adrienne Adams pushed back on the mayor’s assertion that the budget woes come solely from asylum seekers.
The two called for the full protection of vital services for New Yorkers and criticized the mayor’s use of “expensive emergency contracts with for-profit companies” for care of the migrants.
“The administration’s approach of reducing budgets of all agencies broadly through additional cuts and a hiring freeze, along with inflicting cuts on our libraries, CUNY, and cultural institutions, is too blunt and not the prudent or sole choice,” they wrote.
“With clear evidence that city agencies are lagging in their ability to provide New Yorkers with necessary benefits and services at historic levels, the administration must prioritize real exemptions from cuts to turn around city agency performance issues.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also blasted the mayor for pinning cuts on migrants.
“Every time the city has faced a challenge in the last two years, the answer from the administration has been to cut,” he said in a statement.
“Blaming fiscal woes solely on the asylum crisis, even though, truthfully, has absolutely impacted our budget, it only explains a portion of a shortfall we’ve anticipated long before the first bus arrived.”
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Incredibly, it appears that the City is still spending on bike lanes and open streets.
So more trash and rats, cuts in schools etc are all OK.
Also OK that the MTA has raised fares and keeps cutting essential bus service.
But fine to keep spending on bike lanes.
The MTA is run by and funded by the state, not the city.
nycityny-
The City makes substantial contributions to State MTA and works closely on transportation policy and decisions.
The City also administers bus stops, the City funds Fair Fares.
Bike lanes are cheap and improve qualify of life while making the streets safer. So they’re a good investment.
Bikes are for young and fit. Not everyone can or want to ride them.
Our city is way too big and busy to rely on bike lanes as means of transportation. We need to improve subway and bus services instead of harping on how great bike lanes are for everyone.
Yet the bikes still ride on the sidewalks and with the cars in the street
Sal Bando:
With respect …
As a pedestrian, bike lanes and bicycles – especially Citibike – have made the streets unsafe and unpleasant for me and my family.
As a bus and subway rider – not OK for bus/service to cost more and to decline and yet at the same time, plenty of money to expand bicycling.
The city has no control over budgets for buses and subways or their operations.
Adding bike lanes is hardly a major budget item for the city… plus MTA / DOT budgets are entirely separate.
I don’t bike much myself but find the bike lanes far more pleasant then street parking for SUVs
It isn’t bike lanes or parking. In most cases the bike lanes are inscriptions to parking with reduced lanes for cars and trucks. See the bike lanes along Columbus or Amsterdam — sidelwalk, bike lane, parkong, travel lanes.
Adams is truly a disaster
I don’t think we can pin everything on the mayor. We have a lot of migrants or illegal immigrants, staying in hotels, and not providing any tax dollars back to the city. This is untenable. If you’re watching the videos from the south of the border, everyone is headed to New York City to stay in a hotel.
Yes, we have the new tent city at the national park, but if you read the interviews, most of the migrants went there, and said they were going back to the Roosevelt hotel…they only wanted to stay in a hotel.
This is untenable. Everyone here, in New York City, voted for Democratic policies of a sanctuary city. This is the end result. We just lost pre-K for our kids
It’s getting so bad that we’ll soon have to rename the Peter Principle the Eric Principle.
(Google it, kids.)
Maybe if they hadn’t utterly screwed up the retail marijuana rollout, they’d have some additional revenue.
or if they stopped the wasteful street cleaning procedure and replaced it with something a bit more rational.
Still want to continue with Participatory Budgeting? Let’s let that pork barrel program (only good for the hyperbolic newsletters of the respective council members) set sail.
The truth of the matter is, we can’t afford to take care of them all. If they were immediately given work permits and could start earning a living within a reasonable time frame, I’m all for it. But for all of them to live here for an indefinite period of time while using our resources, sorry, it doesn’t work. The city doesn’t have the right to use my taxes to take care of them. Let the idealistic city residents give them donations.
A good number of them already work. Read about the new tent city, some of them complained that it is far from work. So even those who work still stay in shelters rent-free. Just wonderful.
The migrants that live on West 88th Street off RSD are mostly working. They’re living rent free in a converted hotel / slash dorm that was used by NYIT for the past 20 years or so. The owner is billing the city an exorbitant amount daily for a fully populated facility. The people living there are working. The block is overrun with mopeds / scooters and they come and go with delivery equipment at all hours. Several of them own cars. I’m all for giving people a leg up when they arrive, but if they’re working and buying cars and their kids are going to local schools they should be paying rent. The dynamic on this once quiet street has changed dramatically since last May when they arrived. Additionally, there are 3 uniformed National Guard soldiers at the facility at all times to protect the migrants, as well as social workers and other staff. The National Guard people park illegally in front of fire hydrants and essentially sit around all day doing nothing guarding a building that houses people living rent free. I don’t know what the solution is, but this is untenable and Adams doesn’t have the skill to navigate the city through this.
I live on this street, directly next to the building. There has been no change in “dynamics.” The street is still quiet and friendly. Neither the residents nor the national guard folks have negatively affected the quality of life. I’m not quite sure why the national guard folks are there, but I’m sure people would find reason to complain if they weren’t.
With all due respect, you probably have an apartment that isn’t facing the street. My apartment does, directly across from the building. As I type this I am listening to the alarm of one of the over 20 scooters parked in front of the former hotel that’s housing these folks. That alone is “reason to complain”. Is it ok with you that the tenants are working and buying cars and living rent free?
My apartment directly faces the building. The issue of the city’s ability to fund a continued influx of migrants is a separate one. I have noticed on this board that if the migrants work, they are a problem, and if they don’t they are a problem. This board is full of such contradictions. But regardless, I don’t think they have negatively impacted the street in any way. Yes there are mopeds. Otherwise, there would be cars.
Im a reasonable person who has empathy for the struggle of new arrivals. Yes, it’s a challenging situation for sure and people are conflicted. Housing in NYC isn’t plentiful for low income people, especially in Manhattan. As I mentioned in my initial post, I believe we should help new arrivals. The conflict ends for me when I witness people taking advantage. My concern is the fact that many of them are working, not paying rent and can afford to buy scooters and cars. Is that ok with you ? And they access other benefits indefinitely when our neighbors line up for food pantries. It seems you’re comfortable with that, as well as the fact that the National Guard personnel park illegally in front of fire hydrants and don’t get ticketed. I’m surprised you don’t find the scooters an issue on West 88, but then again I can’t be sure if you even live on the block. You claim to be “directly next to the building” the migrants are living in and in your next post claim your apartment “directly faces the building”.
Lastly, if you want to survey what your neighbors think you should speak to the doormen at 155 RSD, 160 RSD and 345 West 88. More people would say the dynamic on the block has changed since the building in question was turned into a shelter for the migrant population, and not in a positive fashion.
Same in the 70s. I’m appalled. I was saying that all along but was shut up by our local virtue signalers.
Joanne,
ITA! Enough…..is enough!
A good number of blue states and cities are facing a budget shortfall for the next several years. Los Angeles, California as a whole, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.
If you read the statistics the city payroll in terms of employment has grown something like 20-30% mostly through the DeBlasio administration to present.
It’s ok to spend as long as that revenue stream continues generously. NYC as most cities has hit a wall with the pandemic and now the contributing factors involved with the migrant crisis.
This is where most progressives fail. Yes, I will generalize. Government needs to be run like a business. You must prepare for the down times or you’ll fall off a cliff. This is what we’re experiencing now.
NYC has been spending, spending and spending since Bloomberg left office. Now after 10+ years of very generous spending we are looking at a very challenging next 10 years.
It’s great to have all these services and pay for free things for many people. However, at some point it’s unsustainable and that’s our reality.
Unfortunately, I don’t see this administration and this city council as up to the task of solving this problem.
If all recall, the administration along with the city council just passed a record budget recently coming out of the pandemic. This speaks volumes to the fiscal irresponsibility of our city leadership.
I feel another real estate tax hike coming
I wish that someone would do a deep dive into what the migrants are really costing the city. I just don’t trust any numbers that come out of this administration. Also, there have been numerous news stories about how many city jobs are unfilled so I don’t understand why there’s such a large budget shortfall, resulting in the need to hire fewer cops and penalize social services like libraries and schools. I think the Administration is so inept (yet Adams manages to hire so many of his cronies and is paying them huge salaries). I’m just concerned that a lot of the budget shortfall is being blamed on migrant care. Of course it is expensive but $11 billion? Just don’t see how….
“The sky is falling.” The hysterics over a 5% budget cut boggles the imagination. There is a tremendous amount of fat in city government. There are solutions but the Mayor is in cahoots with the city labor unions and with the hotel industry .
I hope this gets published even though the West Side Rag does not like criticism of city labor unions or the Mayor.
The Mayor’s got a point. If you can’t solve the problem by giving a $400 million no-bid contract to a company with no experience providing the services you’re contracting them to provide or building a tent city in a flood plain, then we have no choice but to cut non-essential services like police and sanitation along with boondoggles like pre-school and libraries.
Here’s a novel idea…observe US immigration laws and stop the flow of illegal immigrants on the southern border!
We need to change our asylum application process so that bogus claims are vetted before the migrant enters the country. Why do we allow “asylum” seekers to enter the country before we’ve made a decision on their claim? This is crazy, and deeply unfair to those who are following the rules and applying as they are supposed to.
NY wanted to be a sanctuary state accepting all the worlds migrants. Now you’ll have to pay for them until you vote out the politicians who made these choices.
NY is not a sanctuary state, only NYC was foolhardy enough to do that. When they decide to increase they NYC taxes, a huge chunk of the increase. is going to support these people seeking economic asylum, and once it is fully funded even more will come to live in our hotels and public housing which will lead to never ending tax increases.
As I’m sure you kmow, this is about Right to Shelter, not being a sanctuary ciity
The lady in the harbor says it all, America is open to everyone. No room at the inn mentality left Jesus out in the cold , New York can better.
And if you want to have room for everyone, then you cannot also complain when budget cuts are enacted. The fact of the matter is, there isn’t enough money to pay for everything.
Just fooling around with my calculator. Mayor Adams says it will cost 11 billion dollars over 2 years to take care of the migrants who number 60,000 presently. 11 billion dollars divided by 60,000 persons equals $183,000 per person for the 2 years or $91,500 per person per year. I know this is very, very simplified, but I think we can all agree that it is expensive.
The contracts are no-bids to politically connected firms like DocGo. This is graft. Many of the higher ups are tight with Eric and his crowd
Cut, cut, cut… and then this idiot mayor wants to spend $500 million on new radios for the cops so they can talk to each other on an encrypted channel. I could talk about that stupid robot thing too but honestly that’s like a rounding error on $500M (or $700M in NYPD overtime).
To think, but for 0.8 percentage points, we could have had Kathryn Garcia as mayor…