The state should cough up at least 50% of New York City’s mind-boggling migrant costs to make up for the disgraceful lack of funding from Washington, Mayor Eric Adams argued Tuesday.
Hizzoner begged state lawmakers to boost their cash injection by $1.6 billion — to a total of $4.6 billion from now through fiscal year 2025 — as he testified at the annual Albany budget hearing known as “Tin Cup Day,” when mayors across the state make their pitches for resources in New York’s budget.
“Today, we are asking the state to increase its commitment and cover at least 50% of our costs,” said Adams, seeking an increase from the one-third already promised.
“New Yorkers are already carrying most of the asylum-seeker costs. It is wrong to ask them to do more, and it puts our city in a precarious position,” he said.
Fellow Democrat and Gov. Kathy Hochul previously agreed to foot a third of the city’s bill, proposing in her executive budget to carve out $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2025 to help Gotham shelter the relentless influx of asylum seekers pouring in.
That adds to the $1.9 billion already allocated by the state in fiscal year 2024.
While that totals $4.3 billion through fiscal year 2025, the tally includes state in-kind services, or the money it costs for the “tent city” mass shelter Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, as well as health care and national guard costs.
The Adams administration has argued it should be entitled to extra cash on top of that because the feds have yet to fork over any substantial assistance.
So far, the Biden administration has allocated just $150 million in federal aid — a paltry 1.5% of the $10.6 billion the migrant crisis is projected to cost the Big Apple between the 2023 and 2025 fiscal years, according to the city’s estimates.
“The feds never gave their third, so we’re getting 70% of the burden,” Adams complained when grilled by state Sen. George Borrello (R-Jamestown) about why Albany should boost funding.
“Despite our efforts, we cannot assume they will give us any more.”
Adams later clarified that the Biden administration never actually agreed to split the costs equally between the feds, city and state, noting: “That was the decision that was made here in Albany, that we would divide it in three ways. We never thought we would get a third from the federal government.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were quick to rip Adams’ push for even more funding — arguing the city’s sanctuary policy was helping to fuel the ongoing crisis by offering migrants an open invitation to come here.
Democratic-led municipalities such as the Big Apple have declared themselves “sanctuary cities,” meaning illegal immigrants can be shielded from being booted from the US or prosecuted even if in violation of federal law.
“This is not a crisis that he created. But he is the chief executive officer of the largest city in America. He needs to stand up and say that it’s time to end the sanctuary policy,” Borrello later told The Post.
Queens Democrat state Sen. Jessica Ramos added, “He’s asking New York state taxpayers to send multiple billions of dollars to support a self-created crisis.
“It’s a law that he and the New York City Council have no interest in fixing,” Ramos said. “I would very much like to see the mayor stop wasting money putting up tents taking down tents moving people around and like they’re cattle.”
In addition to extra migrant cash, Adams also lobbied for a slew of other big-ticket items — including pleading with lawmakers to extend mayoral control over the nation’s largest public school system for the next four years.
As the Big Apple grapples with state-mandated reduced class-size requirements and the surge of migrant kids filling up classrooms, Adams argued that mayoral accountability allowed for city officials to make “much-needed systemic changes” more quickly.
“Under the current system, the buck stops with me, and you’ve seen that,” he told lawmakers, before firing off a list of accomplishments he credited to mayoral control.
“Thanks to mayoral accountability, we have improved reading and math test scores over the last two years, outpacing the state, while closing racial disparities,” Adams said.
“Prior to mayoral accountability, high school graduation rates stagnated at 50% — they are now over
80%. Again, all of this is possible because of mayoral accountability.”
The mayor also called for more local powers to shutter illegal smoke shops, as well as added tax incentives to create basement and cellar apartments in a bid to boost housing availability.
“This session, we are calling for: a new affordable housing tax incentive, a pathway to legalize safe,
existing basement and cellar apartments, incentives for office conversions, and lifting the cap on density
for new construction,” Adams said.
“We are also limited in how much more the city can borrow to fund our significant infrastructure needs. If we run out of room to borrow, that limits our ability to build new schools, maintain our roads, and electrify our buildings amid the climate crisis.”