New York City is poised to slash the overtime budget for four uniformed agencies — most notably the New York Police Department — to help offset the costs brought on by the city's migrant crisis.
The NYPD is already experiencing a staffing shortage.
The budget director for Mayor Eric Adams informed the NYPD along with the corrections, fire and sanitation agencies in a memo over the weekend to "implement an overtime reduction initiative."
The memo, sent by Jacques Jiha, commissioner of the NYC Dept. of Finance, was obtained by the New York Post and Politico.
"The mayor will … issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city's four uniformed agencies (NYPD, FDNY, DOC/DSNY)," Jiha said in the memo sent Saturday. "These agencies must submit a plan to reduce year-to-year OT spending."
Further, the agencies must submit monthly reports to Adams' office "to track overtime spending and their progress in meeting the reduction target."
The order comes days after Adams issued a warning that the tens of thousands of asylum seekers that have flooded the city "will destroy New York City." Adams again invoked the word "destroy" in an interview Sunday, saying NYC faces a "financial tsunami."
"This is not utopia. New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight," Adams told PIX 11. "That can't happen, and that is going to undermine this entire city."
Adams said costs associated with the influx of migrants could reach $12 billion in the next three years. Adams said 110,000 asylum seekers have come to NYC since April 2022, creating a $12 billion budget deficit.
To help offset, all NYC agencies need 5% in cuts and possibly 15% by some come spring. And even if Adams demanded 15% in cuts, Jiha said in the memo that would still "only cover two-thirds of our projected asylum costs."
However, the head of NYC's largest police union called gutting overtime "impossible" for a police force that is still grappling with being "thousands of cops short."
"It is going to be impossible for the NYPD to significantly reduce overtime unless it fixes its staffing crisis," said Patrick Hendry, head of the Police Benevolent Association. "We are still thousands of cops short, and we're struggling to drive crime back to pre-2020 levels without adequate personnel.
"If City Hall wants to save money without jeopardizing public safety, it needs to invest in keeping experienced cops on the job."
But that's the crunch facing the first-term mayor. Jiha said in the memo that federal and state assistance for the city's crisis has been "grossly inadequate."
"The city is experiencing a humanitarian crisis we did not cause," Jiha wrote.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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