


New York City’s nearly $107 billion budget package is due Friday at midnight, as heated negotiations between City Hall and the City Council focus on Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to make multiple rounds of cuts to city agencies to help fund the growing migrant crisis.
“We’re getting there. Still a few items on the table. Budget will be on time as the council promised,” Councilman and Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) told The Post via text.
Fiscal hawks predict a deal will be finalized by the midnight Friday, June 30th deadline, while lawmakers involved in negotiations complain growing costs of the multi-billion dollar migrant crisis are putting the squeeze on funding existing agency programs.
“The fight is really to restore basic services and not fund new, exciting programming – because the migrant crisis is costing us way too much money,” Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) told The Post.
The city’s Office of Management and Budget estimates it’ll cost over $4.3 billion to house, feed and provide other services to over 50,000 migrants currently living in 176 taxpayer-funded homeless shelters and hotels in the Big Apple.
The Biden administration has greenlit less than $150 million in grant funding to New York to help – as the city spends roughly $8 million daily on the crisis. Gov. Kathy Hochul allocated roughly $1 billion to the Big Apple over the next two years.
“With no plan to end the crisis after July 1st and with 50,000 people in shelters, there’s no sign of this ending in the next fiscal year or anything to prevent it from expanding.”
“Basic costs to the city are at risk – and the mayor has been open about it,” he added.
Adams previously ordered all agencies to make across-the-board cuts, even warning more could come, sparking outrage that basic services delivered by agencies like the Department of Sanitation, FDNY and NYPD could be negatively impacted.
Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala (D-East Harlem) told The Post that the council is fighting to fund several agency programs, including:
“We have to push back and say to the administration: you’re cutting basic services to your agencies which is unacceptable,” she told The Post.
“It’s just been a very difficult year because we are facing multiple crises that are happening simultaneously, while at the same time dealing with the fiscal consequences of the Covid pandemic.
“Those fiscal implications will be with us for a number of years,” she told The Post.
Andrew Rein, president of the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, said the city needs to think about concerning outyear gaps – projected to rise to over $10 billion by fiscal year 2027.
“I believe it will be done by the deadline. But, the budget is going to be wrapped up and people aren’t going to be thinking about what’s really going on here,” he warned.
Adams already ordered agencies to eliminate vacant thousands of positions, rounding out to roughly $1 billion in savings.
“There is money in the short term in our pockets, but the budget should make the future budget gaps smaller, not bigger…We should be reducing fiscal cliffs,” said Rein.
Sources said this year’s budget negotiations are marred by not only the migrant crisis and Tuesday’s primary elections, but also a souring relationship between Adams and the Council.
Last year, City Hall and the Council agreed on a budget deal almost three weeks before the deadline.
Amidst this current budget fight, Adams vetoed a package of controversial housing bills last week – drawing ire from a majority of the council who is threatening to override the move.
Ayala argues the legislation would act as a ‘plan b’ to help alleviate the homelessness and migrant crisis.
“We really don’t have any control over the flow of migrants coming into New York City and how the feds allocate their federal dollars, but we do have control over our own local dollars and our own programs,” she explained.
“It certainly seems like the council is asserting itself,” said Christine Quinn, a former Democratic City Council Speaker and current executive director of homelessness nonprofit WIN.
She wants City Hall to rescind a 2.5% ordered cut to the Department of Social Services, which means fewer staff will take a higher number of caseloads.
“It means homeless people will be getting fewer services, take longer to get them into shelter and lengthen the time of them staying in shelters.”
“That is happening while the mayor vetoed all the housing bills.”
City Hall did not respond to an immediate request for comment.