Each New York mayoral agency will need to cut 15% of its spending, starting with 5% in November when the Office of Management and Budget releases its next fiscal update, Mayor Eric Adams said this morning at a meeting with commissioners and officials. budget.
Municipal agencies will be affected by another 5% reduction in January, when the preliminary budget plan is released, and a third round once when the spring budget update is made in April.
New Yorkers are angry and frustrated, and they are right to be. Me too”
The move comes just days after Adams declared that the immigration crisis “would destroy New York City”complaining once again about the lack of support from President Joe Biden, his fellow Democrat.
New York City has projected that the cost of the immigration crisis will rise to $12 billion by fiscal year 2025.
Adams stated that cuts will not include layoffs and that agencies should try to limit the impact on city services. However, the mayor’s savings plan also includes a hiring freezesaid people with knowledge of the briefing, a component not mentioned in the mayor’s official announcement.
Adams sought to blame the spending reductions on people far removed from City Hall, suggesting the cuts could be reversed if the city received more aid from fellow Democrat New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the feds.
A formal letter from NYC Budget Director Jacques Jiha with details of the cuts is expected to be sent next week.
“These difficult decisions are a direct result of inaction in Washington and Albany,”said the mayor in reference to the headquarters of the federal and state governments. “But the die is not cast yet. We can still avoid these cuts if Washington and Albany do their part by paying their fair share.”he reiterated.
“The simple truth is that New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel these potential cuts, and they will hurt,” Adams said in a prepared speech that coincided with a City Hall news release issued Saturday. “New Yorkers are angry and frustrated, and they are right to be. Me too.”
“The cuts, larger than any in recent history, are likely to spark outrage among city lawmakers, the institutional left and the commissioners themselves, and appeared to function as a pressure campaign aimed at Albany and the federal government to help with the influx of more than 100,000 immigrants since last year (…) The performance of municipal agencies has already been affected by the staff vacancies reaching double digits in some departments, a problem that could only be exacerbated by eliminating new hires,” he said. Political.
Adams reiterated on Wednesday that the White House had provided “no support” to the thousands of asylum seekers who arrive each month, while The city already exceeds 110,000 immigrants since last year, collapsing shelters and now public schools.
The vast majority (82%) of New Yorkers consider the massive wave of immigration that the city has experienced since 2022 as “serious” and 58% want to stop it, according to the latest Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) survey conducted last month. The same survey offered a decline in approval of Democratic leaders in the main positions: President Biden and Governor Hochul.
Since the spring of 2022, the immigration crisis in NYC has generated hundreds of headlines due to its multiple implications.Last week, Governor Hochul asked Biden to expedite work permits for the thousands of newcomers. Meanwhile, the Republican opposition asks that the state Legislature evaluate the impact of the crisis on security, quality of life and taxpayers’ pocketswhile many communities have opposed shelters being installed in their neighborhoods.
In March, NYC’s municipal budget director, Jacques Jiha, said that New York would not receive the $4.2 billion that Mayor Adams expected from the White House to face the budget crisis due to the almost 50,000 immigrants who had arrived in the city. until then in the massive wave that has not stopped. However, he added that the fault lay not with the Democratic president who opened the southern border, but with “Republicans in Congress.”
A survey at the end of January indicated that the majority of those consulted (63%) wanted the thousands of asylum seekers who came to the city and took over the shelters waiting for their procedures in other areas of New York State. Only 31% thought there was room for them in NYC.
The wait for the long-awaited legal status seems long for many people: Immigration courts in New York state already had a backlog of 180,000 cases before thousands of immigrants began arriving in 2022.
New York City’s “right to shelter” policy does not apply to the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived,the mayor stated at the end of January. Also in early 2023, Adams traveled to Washington, DC, and the border in El Paso, Texas, toughening his stance on immigration, which had been “welcome” last year. “There is no more space… but local laws require us here to provide shelter and continue moving in the right direction,” he said at the time. “This has impacted the quality of life in New York“.
He also wrote an opinion article in Washington Postin mid-January calling on President Biden to close the southern border until migrants’ asylum claims could be processed and proposed a “decompression” strategy to alleviate the crisis and settle immigrants.
Adams declared New York a “sanctuary city” last year. when Texas Governor Greg Abbott began turning thousands of immigrants away from his border state amid a national political battle between democrats and republicans. “Sanctuary cities” are designed to protect undocumented immigrants from what local governments consider unfair federal prosecutions and deportations.
