New York City Mayor Eric Adams is dropping another round of budget cuts on the city, but this time he will largely cut migrant funding in order to spare the NYPD, FDNY, and sanitation department.
Adams had been looking to carve out $2.1 billion from New York City’s budget to meet a January goal as part of a spending-reduction plan that would have slashed 5% from all departments citywide.
He warned city residents on Thursday that the ongoing migrant crisis in the Big Apple would trigger “painful” budget cuts, but said they were necessary after the city spent $1.45 billion in fiscal year 2023 on caring for thousands of new arrivals.
On Monday, the Daily Mail reported that Adams won’t be pulling money from the NYPD, FDNY, or the sanitation department, after all. Adams’ budget director Jacques Jiha wrote up a new plan because further budget cuts to those agencies “could impact public safety, health and cleanliness.”
The Democrat mayor will instead scavenge the $2.1 billion by slashing predicted spending from the migrant housing and service budget by 20% in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
According to the Mail, Jiha did not provide specifics about the migrant funding cut, but it will reportedly involve reducing the length of migrant stays in city shelters to 30 days for individuals and 60 days for families.
The departments of Homeless Services, Housing Preservation and Development, Emergency Management and Health + Hospitals have reportedly spent the most on responding to the city’s migrant crisis.
Although departments had found ways to meet the 5% spending reduction goal, the city “must do more” to dig its way out of the projected $7.1 billion deficit for fiscal year 2025, Jiha said, according to the Mail.
“I truly wish that there were other, less painful, ways to address this budget crisis,” Jiha said of the new plan on Monday.
Adams’ administration has decried the lack of support on the migrant issue from Washington, D.C., and Albany and blamed state and federal officials for the drastic budget cuts he has had to make.
His decision to spare some departments from the cuts follows push-back over his Thursday announcement.
Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B, who was born and raised in New York City, posted an expletive-laced tirade on Instagram Live on Saturday, railing against the budget cuts coming to her hometown.
“We’re going to be drowning in f****** rats,” she ranted.
New York City’s biggest police union slammed the budget cuts and warned that reducing the number of officers on the streets will make them less safe.
“Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven't seen since the crime epidemic of the '80s and '90s,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said. “We cannot go back there.”