New York City’s expansion of universal pre-k, some trash pickup, and library services have been slashed as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “extremely painful” cuts in a newly-announced budget modification that looks to trim the city’s spending.
Every agency will see 5% budget reductions this month, the mayor’s budget officials said, as the city faces slower tax revenue growth. Sources also told THE CITY there will be further cuts in a January 2024 modification.
Adams has warned residents for months of worsening budget cuts, but did not speak directly on Thursday about the latest changes. Instead, his budget officials briefed reporters virtually on the condition that they not be quoted directly.
Of the cuts, the mayor had said Tuesday, “it’s going to hurt, it’s going to hurt a lot.”
The modified budget reflects increased costs and spending since last winter’s projections, which caused a $7 billion deficit — forcing more cuts.
Adams has pinned much of the city’s financial woes on the asylum seeker crisis, as officials say more than 143,000 migrants have come to New York City over the last year and a half — many of them needing public assistance.
The city is still taking care of more than 60,000 asylum seekers in already overtaxed shelters and facilities across the city, as it is required to provide shelter to anyone under its “right to shelter” mandate.
The city predicts it will spend $11 billion on services and housing for migrants over the next two years, officials said — and plans to keep reducing those services, although they did not provide further details on how. City officials have already begun to shorten the length of time most can stay at city-run shelters.
“To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services,” the mayor said in a statement Thursday afternoon, adding his recurring plea to the federal government for more financial support.
“Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”
Services Slashed
Layoffs of city employees are not on the table, budget officials said, and Adams said in his statement that there would be “minimal disruption to services.”
But the cuts will nevertheless affect New Yorkers citywide, from summer camp programs to trash cleanup.
For the city Department of Education, it means a delay opening new 3-K and pre-k classes in The Bronx and on Staten Island by six months, officials said. More than $570 million has been cut over multiple years from the DOE, with up to $18 million in cuts to community schools over the current and next future year.
A hiring freeze and vacancy reduction — i.e. not filling open positions — will happen mainly at the DOE’s central office, officials said.
The city is also reducing hours and cutting Fridays for 30,000 middle schoolers for its Summer Rising program.
Libraries across the city will also see reduced hours and the end to Sunday services following the new cuts. Officials from the New York, Queens, and Brooklyn public libraries anticipate even more cuts in the future.
“Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library and The New York Public Library regret to announce that as a result of mid-year budget cuts, we must eliminate seven-day service across the city, including ending Sunday service at the vast majority of branches that currently offer it,” the three systems covering the five boroughs said in a joint statement. “We also will be reducing spending on library materials, programming, and building maintenance and repairs.”
The NYPD will also have to cut the next five upcoming academy classes for new recruits, without information on when they would resume. There are typically four classes each calendar year.
Even the city’s fight against rats, one of Adams’ obsessions, is being scaled back.
His “Get Stuff Clean” initiative — which invested $14.5 million into increased litter basket pickup, expanded camera enforcement to catch people dumping trash illegally, and rat exterminators, among other cleaning actions — has been slashed, officials said. The city is also eliminating funding for food scrap drop-off sites and community composting groups.
City officials are also planning a 20-month freeze on all new civilian hires within the sanitation department, putting the brakes on auto mechanics and other maintenance jobs, a source familiar with the city’s plans told THE CITY.
Whose Fault?
In a joint statement with City Council finance chair Justin Brannan, Speaker Adrienne Adams pushed back on the mayor’s assertion that the budget woes come solely from asylum seekers.
The two called for the full protection of vital services for New Yorkers and criticized the mayor’s use of “expensive emergency contracts with for-profit companies” for care of the migrants.
“The administration’s approach of reducing budgets of all agencies broadly through additional cuts and a hiring freeze, along with inflicting cuts on our libraries, CUNY, and cultural institutions, is too blunt and not the prudent or sole choice,” they wrote.
“With clear evidence that city agencies are lagging in their ability to provide New Yorkers with necessary benefits and services at historic levels, the administration must prioritize real exemptions from cuts to turn around city agency performance issues.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also blasted the mayor for pinning cuts on migrants.
“Every time the city has faced a challenge in the last two years, the answer from the administration has been to cut,” he said in a statement.
“Blaming fiscal woes solely on the asylum crisis, even though, truthfully, has absolutely impacted our budget, it only explains a portion of a shortfall we’ve anticipated long before the first bus arrived.”
