NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday the cancellation of the proposed fiscal year budget that included cuts for city agencies, along with an additional reduction in the budget allocated for city-funded asylum seeker costs.
The Adams administration announced it's cutting an extra 10% from the budget for city-funded asylum seeker costs. This is in addition to a 20% cut from the Asylum Seeker Program to Eliminate the Gap, which already saved over $1.7 billion, according to Adams.
The administration also announced that it will be shifting from a nearly complete hiring freeze to a policy where only one new hire is allowed for every two vacancies, and will also be relaxing personal spending (OTPS) freeze restrictions.
"The combination of our tough, but necessary financial management decisions, including cutting asylum seeker spending by billions of dollars, along with better-than-expected economic performance in 2023, is allowing us to cancel the last round of spending cuts, as well as lift the near total freezes on city hiring and other than personal spending," Adams said.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
In 2023, the city encountered a budget shortfall due to the increasing asylum seeker crisis, the end of federal COVID-19 stimulus money, unresolved labor contracts inherited by this administration, and slower tax revenue growth, according to Adams.
In an attempt to tackle these issues, the Adams administration put in certain savings programs and a nearly complete hiring freeze in the November financial plan, as well as in the preliminary and executive budgets.
Now, according to the administration, $6.6 billion in savings was achieved for the fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025 in these plans which included cutting $1.7 billion from asylum seeker costs, a 20% reduction, over fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025 by "helping put migrants on a path to self-sufficiency with intensified case management and reducing the household per-diem costs of providing care."
The New York Immigration Coalition criticized the cuts on asylum seekers. "Mayor Adams is becoming the real life example of the boy who cried wolf," Murad Awawdeh, executive director of NYIC said. " After spending months scapegoating asylum seekers for what the Mayor described as a looming fiscal crisis that required deep cuts to the city's social services—he has had to retract his words and budget cuts twice already. While that's good news for the city and New Yorkers, in general, this Mayoral Administration fails to take any responsibility for the false narrative it has created about asylum seekers."
New York City has taken in over 178,600 asylum seekers, with around 65,000 still receiving support, including case management, shelter, and food.
Over 60% of asylum seekers who entered the city's intake center have moved on towards becoming self-sufficient.
"Make no mistake — we are not yet out of the woods, as we still need Albany and Washington, D.C. to play their roles in providing New Yorkers with additional support," Adams said. "But this new chapter is the result of a full collaboration across city government, our nonprofit partners, and so many others, and will allow us to continue to deliver on our mission for a safer, cleaner, more prosperous New York City for all."
