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NY Post
New York Post
20 Sep 2023


NextImg:City Hall freezes most discretionary spending for NYC agencies in latest migrant crisis crunch

The Adams administration is stripping city agencies of their discretionary spending powers — in the latest attempt by the mayor to balance the Big Apple’s books with the impending migrants-fueled $12 billion shortfall, The Post has learned.

Agencies will now have to jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops to get approval for even the most common expenses to keep offices running normally, according to sources and a memo obtained by The Post.

“It could be like the coffee guy or someone who delivers water… It’s so vague,” a City Hall source who reviewed the plan said referring to freezing all general contracts.

“That’s a big spigot to turn off. That’s like all outside spending,” they said. “Maybe if it was like [over] a dollar amount, but you don’t need to look over everything.”

The directive sent out on Tuesday by the Office of Budget Management halts nearly all non-salary spending until next summer as part of the city’s attempt to reach the first wave of 5% cuts needed by November.

Mayor Adams says the city will need to cut its budget by 15% by next year to account for the migrant crisis.
G.N.Miller/NYPost

The memo rattles off more than three dozen budget codes that have been frozen, which include all:

To get approval to spend in any of those categories, agencies must obtain an exemption from OMB, Chief of Staff to the Mayor Camille Varlack and the First Deputy Mayor’s Office Sheena Wright.

Asylum seekers sleeping on the sidewalk in line, this morning to get into the Roosevelt Hotel
More than 110,000 migrants have come through NYC since the spring of 2022.
Robert Miller

If an agency spends any city funds in those categories without approval, “hires and promotions will not be approved for that month,” the memo threatens.

Exemptions can be made for services required by law or the council, associated with the migrant crisis or simply for mayoral priority.

The process though will take up to 10 days for expenses already covered by grants and up to 21 days for all others.

City Hall is using this to take a hard look at all current contracts, insiders say.

Migrants sleep outside 26 Federal Plaza.
Nearly 60,000 migrants are in the city’s care currently.
Seth Gottfried

“Freezing spending in specific object codes is a pretty specific spending control that the city hasn’t typically done,” said Ana Champeny, one of the top budget analysts at the Citizens Budget Commission.

Champeny estimated the freeze would hit approximately $4.4 billion of the city’s $107.1 billion budget — but it was unclear how liberal the administration would be with granting exemptions.

“TBD how restrictive it will be in practice,” one agency staffer said.

City Hall did not immediately respond for comment.

The Adams administration says it needs to find up to 15% in savings by next year to account for the ballooning migrant costs as it cares for nearly 60,000 asylum seekers.

Some in the city are unsure that’s even possible.

“I don’t see how they are going to hit these PEGs, [mayor’s three phases of 5% savings]. Maybe one but not all three,” a council source said.

Additional reporting by Carl Campanile