NYC Mayor Eric Adams is forced to slash budget to cope with migrant crisis: NYPD officers are cut by a fifth and education takes a $1bn hit - after Mayor invited 120,000 desperate people to his 'sanctuary city'

Mayor Eric Adams is being forced to slash New York City's budget to cope with the migrant crisis - after inviting 120,000 desperate people to his 'sanctuary city.' 

Adams warned New Yorkers on Thursday the migrant crisis would cause 'painful' budget cuts as he announced his administration's budget for next year. 

The mayor announced a $110.5 billion budget, claiming cuts across all departments were necessary after the city spent $1.45 billion in fiscal 2023 on the migrant crisis. 

The city is predicted to spend approximately $12 billion on the ongoing migrant crisis within the next two years. 

The budget cuts would cause NYPD officers to be cut by a fifth, or 13.5 percent, by postponing the next five academy classes, bringing officers below 30,000 - down from 36,000. 

Education would also take a $1 billion hit over two years and it would cause a delay in the rollout of composting in the Bronx and Staten Island, causing reduced trash pick-ups as well as cuts to the city's pre-K programs. 

The New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library also would need to eliminate Sunday service due to the budget cut. 

'Without sufficient funding, we cannot sustain our current levels of service, and any further cuts to the Libraries' budgets will, unfortunately, result in deeper service impacts,' the libraries said in a statement.

The cuts would also decrease funding for two children's programs: summer school and universal prekindergarten. 

Adams has long warned about the potential of budget cuts to help offset the rise in costs for housing migrants. He has pleaded with the federal government for more resources, but they have fallen on deaf ears. 

Migrants have flooded the Big Apple after overwhelming border cities and being sent on buses by southern governors such as Texas' Greg Abbott and Florida's Ron DeSantis to northern, liberal-run locations.   

Crowded streets outside NYC's Roosevelt hotel, where migrants are processed, have become the norm as the city's shelter system is stretched to its breaking point with more than 118,000 migrants arriving since spring 2022. 

'In the recent months our administration has delivered for you over and over again. Jobs are up, crime is down and everyday we are delivering for working people,' Adams said on Thursday.  

'But for months, you've heard me talk about the fiscal challenges the city is facing as the cost of asylum seeker humanitarian crisis have skyrocketed - placing great strain on our budget.'

'At the same time, Covid-19 stimulus funding is sunsetting - we have been clear that without significant, timely action from our state and federal partners, we will be forced to make some tough choices.'

Adams emphasized that to balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency 'dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services' but the wellbeing of New Yorkers has always been his 'top priority.' 

He said his office has not only managed tax payer's dollars responsibly and balanced the budget but they have done so by 'minimizing disruption to the services New Yorkers rely on.' 

'While we succeeded, make no mistake: we are not out of the woods,' he said. 'We added billions of dollars of care .. we must close a $7 billion budget gap in the coming years. That is the reality we are facing.'

If the circumstances don't change dramatically, Adams said city agencies will be forced to reduce city-funded spending by 5 percent two more times within the next two months. 

'We cannot afford to be divided as a city in this moment ... I have been in the city through good and difficult time. Despite the challenges ahead of us  we will continue to come back strong because that is the New York City way.' 

'The budget cuts proposed today risk doing harm to the wellbeing of all New Yorkers, especially our most vulnerable,' City Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement. 

'City Hall should stop suggesting that asylum seekers are the reason for imposing severe cuts when they are only contributing to a portion of these budget gaps, much of which already existed,' he continued. 

'Our administration has a legal and fiscal responsibility to come to the table, balance the budget, and make the tough decisions today to ensure a better tomorrow for New York City,' said First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. 

'We cannot ask New Yorkers to balance their checkbooks without city leaders doing the same. These tough but necessary decisions were made to protect the city's fiscal future while continuing to deliver vital government services. 

'However, New York City should not carry this burden on its own. The federal and state government must play their part in delivering long-overdue support, funding, and resources,' Wright continued.

'By law, we're required to balance our budget, and this November Financial Plan Update successfully does that with minimal disruptions to services,' said Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack.  

'Our agencies have stretched dollars further than ever before to deliver as many services as possible to New Yorkers while securing our city's financial future, and I'm grateful to the dedicated public servants who will have to do more with less as COVID stimulus dries up, tax revenue growth levels off, and the asylum seeker crisis continues to eat away at our city's finances,' Varlack added.

However, not every group was happy with the mayor's Thursday budget proposal. Chair of the City Council’s progressive caucus Lincoln Restler told the New York Times that his group would not cooperate with the cuts proposed by the Democratic mayor. 

'Mayor Adams’s unnecessary, dangerous and draconian budget cuts will only worsen New York’s affordability crisis and delay our city’s economic recovery by cutting funding for the schools, child care, food assistance and more that help New Yorkers live and raise families in this city,' he said.

NYPD police union president Patrick Hendry also ripped the proposal to delay academy classes, saying it will make New Yorkers less safe. 

The city hasn't had fewer than 30,000 officers since 1984. 

'This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets,' Hendry told the Times. 'Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s. We cannot go back there.'

Adams also said the budget includes a 20 percent cut to migrant services, but did not reveal specifics on which areas would be impacted.  

In September, New York City's migrant crisis was said to cost the city more than $4 billion this fiscal year if the situation continues - as mayor Eric Adams warned the influx of asylum seekers could destroy the city.

Despite mayor Adams' cries for help from the state and federal government, the city has not received aid to cover the extra costs, so the $4.7 billion would come from the city's budget. 

That amount is equal to the budgets for the city's sanitation, fire and parks departments combined.

City officials have said they expect the number asylum seeker population to reach nearly 33,980 households this fiscal year.

The city was paying about $385 a night per migrant family that needs housing and feeding. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers are costing the city roughly $10 million every day.

Adams had warned that the city's services will be affected by the incredible additional expenses on the budget. He has previously stated the city is planning on cutting services such as library hours, meals for senior citizens, and free, full-day care for three-year-olds.