In Addition to NYPD, FDNY, and DSNY, Mayor Adams Hold Libraries Harmless in the Preliminary Budget, While DOE, DYCD, and Aging Are Partially Exempted
Our Bureau
New York, NY
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has released New York City’s balanced $109.4 billion Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. With near-record reserves despite significant fiscal challenges, the budget builds on the Adams’ administration proven track record of responsible fiscal management, while prioritizing the needs of working-class New Yorkers by restoring critical investments in public safety, public spaces, and young people.
Facing a historically high $7.1 billion budget gap due to the growing asylum seeker crisis, drying up federal COVID-19 stimulus funding, expenses from labor contracts this administration inherited that went unresolved for years, and slowing tax revenue growth, the Adams administration took action early in the budget cycle with a citywide hiring freeze and Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) savings program. These actions helped balance the budget and stabilize the city’s financial position without layoffs, tax hikes, or major disruption to city services — and their success, along with better-than-expected revenue, ultimately allowed for the restorations of funding for public safety, quality of life, and young people.
“Our administration came into office focused on making New York City safer, more prosperous, and more livable. With two years of hard work, we are heading in the right direction: Jobs are up, crime is down, tourists are back, our children’s test scores are better, and we are delivering for working-class New Yorkers every day,” said Mayor Adams. “The growing asylum seeker crisis, COVID-19 stimulus funding drying up, tax revenue growth slowing, and unsettled labor contracts that we inherited widened the FY25 budget gap to a record level. But, with responsible and effective management, we have been able to provide care for asylum seekers and balance the budget — without unduly burdening New Yorkers with a penny in tax hikes or massive service reductions, and without laying off a single city worker. We are not out of the woods — while we have put New York City on the right track, to keep moving forward, we still need help from the federal and state governments. But this carefully planned and disciplined budget allows us to keep helping working families, keep providing opportunity for all New Yorkers, and keep our city a beacon of hope, while we deliver a safer, cleaner, and fairer New York.”
New York City has continued to effectively manage the asylum seeker humanitarian crisis largely on its own without substantial federal or state aid — including getting on track to reduce city-funded spending on the crisis by 20% over FY24 and FY25, primarily by helping put migrants on a path to self-sufficiency and reducing the per-diem costs of providing care. To date, New York City has provided care for more than 170,700 asylum seekers, with over 68,000 currently still in the city’s care. The city has also connected school-aged children to public schools through Project Open Arms and provided case management, shelter, food, child care, and more services.
In addition to reducing costs, the Adams administration is fighting back against Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the transportation companies he uses to transport migrants to New York City in bad faith to hurt NYC and overwhelm our social services system. Last month, Mayor Adams issued Executive Order 538 to protect the safety and well-being of asylum seekers and city employees by making it against the law to use charter buses to bring migrants to New York City without coordinating with the city government. The city then sued 17 bus companies for transporting and abandoning more than 33,000 asylum seekers in New York City without paying for the ongoing costs of care for those people. The lawsuit seeks to recover approximately $708 million.
Funding is restored in the Preliminary Budget for the NYPD to add another police academy class of 600 new recruits set to join the ranks in April 2024. This class of recruits will graduate in October and will join the three additional police classes already scheduled to graduate this year. Funding will also be restored to return a fifth firefighter at 20 FDNY engine companies and maintain 190 firefighters on payroll who are not expected to be able to return to full-duty status. The funding restorations build on successful efforts by the Adams administration to drive down overall crime, with murders down 12% and shootings down 25% in 2023.
The Preliminary Budget includes restored funding to maintain 23,000 DSNY litter baskets and allow DSNY to continue installing its Litter Basket of the Future — one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023.
In the Preliminary Budget, $10 million is restored to 170 DOE community schools, which partner with community-based organizations to provide holistic support to students and their families, including providing health care, additional learning opportunities, and social and emotional counseling.
