Albany’s budget delay is messing with NYC’s finances, Eric Adams warns – New York Post
Metro
By Bernadette Hogan and Emily Crane
April 19, 2023 | 5:57pm
With state lawmakers repeatedly blowing their budget deadline, and city taxpayers likely on the hook for more of the ongoing migrant crisis, Big Apple fiscal experts are considering drastic scenarios for cuts to city government, Mayor Eric Adams insisted Wednesday.
Hizzoner argued the states drawn-out financial talks, whose end is now nearly three weeks overdue, will seriously impact his own budget estimates including how the city will meet the needs of newly arrived border-crossers, as well as Hochuls proposed MTA payroll tax and lifting of the charter school cap.
Were looking at the different dollars in the state budget that may be attached to what were doing here, Adams told reporters at City Hall.
Remember, we have to balance our budget for two years. And right now, we dont know exactly whats going to come out of Albany.
The mayor added that his budget director, Jacques Jiha, was currently grappling with how to balance the citys books without the uncertainty.
Normally, the budget is balanced. You know what youre going to produce. So we are still in negotiation to get it clear to our delegation in Albany that we need the help, said Adams, adding that he had already pressed Hochuls office to understand the urgency.
City Hall must adhere to an April 26 deadline to reveal Adams executive budget proposal.
Legislators in Albany, meanwhile, passed yet another extender on Tuesday as negotiations over its spending plan dragged well past an April 1 deadline.
The mayor has already lamented that Hochuls proposals will set the city back a small fortune, specifically citing the governors call for the city to fork out $500 million a year to bail out the floundering Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Adams has also taken issue with how the city could be on the hook for $1 billion in lease payments under Hochuls plan tolift the capon new city charter schools and roughly $3 billion to cover the cost of the migrant crisis.
The Adams administrationlast week ordered city agencies to slash a total of $1 billion annually from their budgets for the next four years blaming the move, in part, on the migrant surge.
Left-leaning City Council members quickly claimed the cuts werent necessary because of an alleged $1.3 billion extra in cash floating around this year to offset costs.
But Adams insisted Wednesday the city needed to plan for the worst, both because there is no guarantee of final state funding and due to the lack of adequate financial assistance from the Biden administration on the migrant front.
Hochuls budget proposal has called for the state, city and feds to split NYCs migrant crisis costs equally but Adams said it was likely the Big Apple will be on the hook for a larger share.
Were not getting the third out of Washington! Lets be clear on that. That third becomes two-thirds for New York City, Adams said.
Jiha, the budget director, said the city needs to come up with a minimum of $3 billion to cover its share of the cost of the ballooning migrant crisis, which is now pegged at $4.3 billion.
This is a huge burden. And were not raising taxes. So the only way we could manage is to find efficiencies in other places in city government, he said.
Adams insisted Wednesday he didnt want any potential budget cuts to greatly impact New Yorkers.
We dont want to be in a position to have to lay off New Yorkers because that only aggravates the problem, the mayor said.
And we also know that New Yorkers are going through very difficult times, so we dont want to raise taxes.
The Hochul administration didnt immediately respond to The Posts request for comment.
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Albany's budget delay is messing with NYC's finances, Eric Adams warns - New York Post