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Mayor Adams announces cuts as high as 15% for all NYC agencies amid
ballooning migrant costs

Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News

Mayor Eric Adams announced he’s ordering every city agency to slash their budgets by 5% in response to the costly migrant crisis. In this photo, Mayor Adams
speaks from the podium during press conference at City Hall Rotunda on Aug. 29, 2023.

By David Cruz | dcruz@nydailynews.com and Chris Sommerfeldt | csommerfeldt@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News
PUBLISHED: September 9, 2023 at 2:55 p.m. | UPDATED: September 9, 2023 at 6:29 p.m.

Mayor Adams announced Saturday there would be cuts as high as 15% to all city agencies by next
spring — including NYPD and health department — in response to the costly migrant crisis which ,

could further impact the delivery of city services.

The mayor made a surprise speech over the weekend telling New Yorkers that the lack of
substantial support from the federal and state government regarding the crisis — at a time when
COVID aid is drying up — has forced the city to impose austerity cuts .

“We are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis involving asylum seekers a crisis that will cost our ,

city $12 billion over three fiscal years,” Adams said. “While our compassion is limitless our
resources are not.”

Those cuts, the administration said, intend to “minimize disruption to programs and services, and
there will not be layoffs,” according to a press release on the announcement. The current budget
stands at $107 billion.

The cuts must be submitted ahead of the city’s budget update in November. If the city doesn’t get
more federal help between now and January, Adams warned that there could be an additional 5%
cut in January and another 5% in April. Adams also intends to impose a 5% cut in the following four
years. City agencies could stave off those cuts if more federal and state aide comes through,
according to Adams.

Adams’ announcement comes as the city continues to take in thousands of migrants mostly
entering from the U.S.-Mexico border. To date, there have been somewhere around 110,000
migrants arriving in New York City.

An estimated 60,000 migrants are currently under the city’s care, according to the government
figures.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — who leads the 51-member body that’s heavily scrutinized
the mayor’s strategy on the crisis — released a joint statement with the council finance chair Justin
Brannan, saying they’re reviewing the letter from the mayor’s office informing them of further cuts.

“There remains an urgent need for increased state and federal support to aid the City’s response to
increased international migration,” they wrote. “Tens of thousands of people seeking asylum are
arriving in our city at a time when we are already confronting a housing crisis, record
homelessness, and the sunset of federal COVID stimulus funds. New York City cannot be expected
to handle this on our own. The costs are considerable, and it is critical that the city receives more
aid, while safeguarding funding that supports New Yorkers. The future of our city and its continued
economic recovery relies on the investments we make into our communities and the essential
services they rely on.”

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s been a staunch critic of the mayor’s handling of the migrant
crisis, agreed that more federal and state aid is needed to manage the crisis.

“But while our office will review these proposed cuts, one thing is immediately clear: Scapegoating
asylum seekers will not improve education, public safety, housing affordability, or quality of life for
New Yorkers,” Lander said in a statement.

For months, Adams has sounded the alarm over how the crisis has stressed the city’s social safety
net, saying the city is running out of space to house the migrants. Advocates for the migrants said
the city can do more to effectively respond to the crisis, including renting more vacant hotel rooms
or provide city-funded housing vouchers to free up space in the shelter system.

The fight for more federal funding has put Adams at loggerheads with the Biden White House,
which hasn’t fully responded to Adams’ needs.

On Wednesday, Adams predicted that the crisis would “destroy” the city without greater federal
and state intervention, provoking the ire of left-wing groups who believed the mayor was
scapegoating migrants.

Adams on Friday stuck by his words, warning that without help it will impinge the delivery of
services to migrants and “long-time New Yorkers who are already struggling,”

“We already had a homeless population, we already had low-income New Yorkers that were
struggling to feed themselves and to stay in their homes,” Adams said on “The PBS NewsHour”
Friday. “We are going to transform this city, if this is not under control, with a price tag of $12
billion.”

David Cruz Politics Editor

|
David Cruz has been a New York City-based journalist since 2004, covering elections and primaries at News 12 The Bronx, WCBS 880-
The Bronx Times Reporter and the Norwood News.

Chris Sommerfeldt Politics Reporter |

Chris Sommerfeldt is a reporter covering City Hall and all things NYC politics for the Daily News. Prior, Chris covered the Trump and
Biden administrations, Congress and national politics. He began working for the Daily News in 2015 as a general assignment reporter.
His superpower is biking everywhere, no matter the distance or the weather.

2023 September 9

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