Eric Adams cuts budgets for police, libraries and schools

Mayor Eric Adams announced painful cuts to New York City services on Thursday, freezing police hiring and closing libraries on Sundays, warning that more cuts would be needed without additional federal funding to manage the migrant crisis .

The cuts would cut the number of police officers below 30,000, reduce the Department of Education budget by $1 billion over two years and slow the rollout of composting in the Bronx and Staten Island — one of the mayor’s key initiatives to combat rats and tackle climate change. . The cuts would also weaken two popular programs: summer school and universal preschool.

Mr. Adams said in a statement that he had to make cuts to municipal agencies in response to the rising costs of the migrant crisis, slowing tax revenues and the end of federal pandemic aid.

“No city should have to tackle a national humanitarian crisis largely alone, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, DC, today’s budget will only be the beginning,” he said.

The cuts to New York City’s $110 billion budget come as Mr. Adams faces two crises that could define his mayoralty and his chances of winning a second term — an influx of migrants from the southern border which he believes could destroy the city. , and a federal investigation into his campaign’s fundraising.

Mr. Adams, a Democrat in his second year as president, had warned at a news conference on Tuesday that the cuts would be “extremely painful for New Yorkers.”

“In all my time in government, this is probably one of the most painful exercises I have witnessed,” he said.

Progressive Democrats immediately criticized the mayor’s cuts, saying they would hurt working families. Lincoln Restler, chairman of the City Council’s progressive caucus, said his group would not participate in the cuts.

“Mayor Adams’ 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 survive in this to live in the city and raise families.” said Mr. Restler.

Mr Adams said the costs of the migrant crisis were growing and were expected to cost almost $11 billion over two years, with a big gap in next year’s budget of $7 billion. The cuts will take effect immediately, city officials said, although the City Council will have a role in approving certain budget changes.

Council President Adrienne Adams said in a statement that some essential programs, such as libraries and the City University of New York, should be spared deep cuts. She said the city should explore new revenue to avoid cuts and shift migrant services to nonprofits.

“The government’s response in providing services to asylum seekers has been far too dependent on expensive emergency contracts with for-profit companies that have cost the city billions of dollars,” she said.

Police union president Patrick Hendry said the police staffing freeze would make New Yorkers less safe.

“This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets,” he said. “The police department has already reached breaking point, and these cuts will return us to a workforce we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. We can’t go back there.”

Mr Adams had said on Tuesday that eliminating a new class of 250 school safety officers would mean schools would “target parents and parent groups to do some volunteer work.” He said he would do everything he can to keep schools safe with fewer resources.

“We will be working at a very high level to get this done correctly,” he said.

Library leaders announced the cuts would force them to close branches on Sundays starting in December.

“Without adequate funding, we cannot maintain our current levels of service, and further cuts to library budgets will unfortunately result in deeper impacts to services,” leaders of the Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Library said in a statement. .

Nonprofit leaders have criticized the cuts, saying they would hurt essential services, including food banks, domestic violence shelters, after-school programs and legal services. Michelle Jackson, executive director of the Human Services Council, which represents dozens of nonprofits, had asked the city to spare these services, arguing that the cuts would “make our city less fair, less safe and less stable for years to come.” .

Leaders of the left-wing Working Families Party said Mr Adams was unfairly blaming migrants for the cuts when he should have taken the blame.

“Mayor Adams is pursuing a death agenda with a thousand cuts,” the group said. “As any teacher, librarian or healthcare provider will tell you, there are no more cuts to make.”

City Comptroller Brad Lander said the city should continue to push for more state and federal funding, but called on Mr. Adams to “stop suggesting that asylum seekers are the reason for imposing tough cuts when they are only contributing to some of these budget deficits, many of which already existed.”

Just a day earlier, Mr. Adams had celebrated the first increase in enrollment at New York City public schools in eight years — largely due to an influx of migrants from the southern border. For the current school year, enrollment increased by approximately 1 percent (or approximately 8,000 students), bringing the total number of students to 915,000.

Now, city schools will make cuts at a time when educators say they need more resources to help new students and also continue the academic recovery from pandemic school closures. City officials said the Department of Education would be cut by $547 million this fiscal year and $600 million next year. In addition to cuts to the Summer Rising summer program for high school students and the elimination of thousands of spots in universal preschool for 3-year-olds, community schools will be cut by $10 million this fiscal year.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said 653 schools would be forced to make mid-year cuts — about 43 percent of the school system.

“Class sizes will increase and school communities will be needlessly damaged,” he said.

Mr. Adams, a former police commissioner who ran for mayor as a working-class hero, acknowledged Tuesday that some of his top policy priorities would be hurt by the cuts.

“It’s more than painful for New Yorkers — it’s painful for us,” Mr. Adams said. “I have seen a lot of purely personal pain among the members of my team. These are initiatives that we have fought hard for.”