NYC to roll out more migrant budget cuts as mayor vows to spare libraries

Metro

By Craig McCarthy

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is set to unveil its latest round of migrant belt-tightening on Tuesday — after rolling back several controversial budget cuts and promising the city’s library system will be spared further reductions.

The mayor and his team are set to brief the City Council at around 1:30 p.m. and present the preliminary 2025 fiscal year budget, which has been expected to come with a 5% spending reduction at city agencies.

The cuts would mark round two of three 5% slashes the mayor’s office has said are necessary to close the budget gap created by the migrant crisis that has brought nearly 170,000 new arrivals to the shelter system since spring 2022.

It’s unclear if the cutbacks will be as deep as originally promised after a series of windfalls for the city, namely higher-than-expected tax revenue and successful migrant cost reduction.

The city is also set to get another nearly $2 billion from the state as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget, due to be unveiled Tuesday. That will bring the total investment from the state to $3.8 billion, The Post exclusively reported.

City Hall on Monday would only say that it would be making the plan for the January round of cuts public during the briefing and also provide an update on the reductions to follow in April.

Over the past week, Hizzoner has been mum on what New Yorkers could expect come his week, brushing off reporters’ questions and saying his budget chief, Jacques Jiha, would spell out the changes on Tuesday.

The only sliver of information released came Sunday when Adams posted a video on social media saying libraries would be spared from the next round of cuts.

“We are holding our city’s three library systems harmless in this round to prevent further service reductions and protect those vital institutions,” Adams said in the video.

Adams last week also undid nearly $200 million in cuts made back in November, including restoring the final NYPD class of this year, FDNY staffing, garbage service and educational programs, after City Hall’s conservative projection in tax revenue led to an overestimated over-budget gap.

At the same time, the city has slashed the cost of asylum seeker services by 20%, reducing the projected total cost of the crisis to just over $10 billion through the next fiscal year.

Jiha still has repeatedly stressed that the city continues to face a $7 billion budget gap due to the crisis.

The Council has raised concerns about how the Adams administration has handled financial planning for the crisis, arguing that the cuts have been too steep and were based on low-ball projections for tax revenue.

“Our children deserve responsible budget management and not to have the programs they rely on politicized in a process that is based on overly exaggerated estimates,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams, Finance Chair Justin Brannan and Education Chair Rita Joseph in a joint statement Friday, when cuts to educational programs were reversed.