Adams reveals NYC budget amid surging costs to pay for asylum seekers, labor deals, inflation
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Mayor Eric Adams unveiled New York City's budget for fiscal year 2024 on Wednesday, the largest executive budget in city history.
The city's budget will be $106.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 because of surging costs to pay for asylum seekers, new labor deals and inflation. However, no cuts will be made to budgets for libraries and cultural institutions
In the last year, more than 57,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city -- and more than 35,000 remain in the city's care.
"Many were bused in, without advanced notice, from other states, this is an ongoing crisis," Adams said.
Nearly 500 asylum seekers arrived in NYC on Tuesday alone.
"That's 500 people. An entire hotel. An entire shelter," Adams said.
The city anticipates that the cost of providing shelter, food, clothing, and other services for asylum seekers will be $4.3 billion through the end of the FY24. By the end of June 2024, the city will be caring for an estimated 70,000 asylum seekers.
The city is expecting $1 billion in state aid and $600 million from the federal government to help pay for the asylum seekers.
"But even if our optimistic projections are met, state and federal aid will cover will cover just under 40% of our costs leaving New Yorkers to pay the rest," Adams said.
The mayor said finding efficiencies in the city's budget saved $1.6 billion in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 "without laying off a single employee or cutting any services."
"Our Fiscal Year 2024 Executive Budget prioritizes our working people's agenda and keeps our city working for the benefit of all New Yorkers. But the challenges we face are real - including the costs of the asylum seeker crisis, the need to fund labor deals, and slowing tax revenue growth - and we must budget wisely," said Mayor Adams. "The PEG was a success, achieving $1.6 billion in savings across the two fiscal years, and over $3 billion in the outyears without a single layoff or service reductions. Further, we did not cut a single penny from libraries or cultural institutions, and adjusted savings targets for agencies to avoid cutting critical needs."
The FY24 investments include uplifting working people, improving sustainability and resiliency, strengthening the city's mental health resources and building out the college-to-career pipeline.
Before the budget announcement, Adams announced he had no plans to cut from the city's libraries, which had been proactively sounding the alarm that they will be forced to close branches on weekends as part of next year's budget.
The administration had previously asked all city agencies to find "efficiencies" in how they operate, and identify budget cuts of up to 4% for the fiscal year. Only the Education Department and the City University of New York were told to find smaller cuts of 3%.
The leaders of the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library responded by publicly warning a 4% cut would force them to suspend Saturday service at a number of locations and "completely eliminate Sunday service."
The mayor said on an interview with NY1 on Wednesday morning that after all agencies were asked to identify cuts, the administration decided the library cuts were not necessary.
An official with New York Public Library released a statement thanking the mayor for not cutting 4% from their budget but says $36.2 million in proposed budget cuts still on the table could affect library operating hours and programs.
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