New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday announced budget cuts to the tune of billions of dollars due to rising costs associated with the tens of thousands of migrants flooding into the city.
All city agencies will be forced to cut spending by 5% starting in November and 15% by next spring. The budget cuts will not require layoffs, but they will reportedly involve a hiring freeze.
Altogether, the budget cuts — some of the steepest in years — will amount to billions of dollars that could affect a wide swath of sectors like New York’s public schools, the NYPD, the fire department, sanitation, the mayor’s office said.
New York City currently has a $107 billion budget.
“The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum-seekers will feel these potential cuts — and they will hurt,” Adams said in a speech Saturday. “New Yorkers are angry and frustrated, and they’re right to be. I am too.”
NEW: @NYCMayor says “everything is on the table,” when discussing the newly announced cuts. Hear more pic.twitter.com/wIi25GqTt6
— Dan Mannarino (@DanMannarino) September 10, 2023
More than 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since last year, and 60,000 are still being housed on the city’s dime, causing New York’s homeless shelters to burst at the seams.
The city has already spent more than $1.2 billion on the migrants and is projected to spend up to $5 billion.
“Everything is on the table now,” Adams told Pix11 about the budget cuts, adding that New York has been “ignored” on the migrant issue.
Adams warned about the impending budget cuts last week, saying the city has a $10 billion deficit and that they will have to cut every service in the city.
He also issued a dire warning about the migrant crisis.
“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams said at a town hall meeting on Wednesday. “We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month … Every community in this city is going to be impacted.”
WATCH: NY Mayor Adams issues DIRE warning on migrant crisis:
“This issue will destroy New York City… every community in this city is going to be impacted”
“The city we knew, we’re about to lose”
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 7, 2023
As the migrant crisis has become more urgent, Adams has blamed everyone from Texas, the White House, and New York’s state government for sticking the city with the emergency.
“The president and the White House have failed New York City on this issue,” Adams said in April, mentioning President Biden by name.
Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has since given New York City $140 million in federal funding for the migrant crisis, but Adams has said it will take more aid to get the situation under control.
“No city should be going through this, including El Paso and Brownsville,” Adams said on MSNBC, referring to two Texas cities that have similarly been flooded with large numbers of migrants.
Migrants are also causing other headaches for New York besides overcrowding the emergency shelter system — some have caused public disturbances. Meanwhile, business owners in Manhattan say their businesses are suffering significantly due to the chaos spilling onto the streets from hotels being used as migrant shelters. Migrants have been spotted drinking and doing drugs inside the hotels as well.
Other Democrat-run major cities are also dealing with a flood of migrants as southern border states get fed up with dealing the illegal immigration crisis on their own.
The Biden administration has given Illinois and Chicago $45 million in federal funding so far to help with the influx of migrants in that area.
