NYC Mayor Eric Adams proposes $109.4B budget for coming fiscal year

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday proposed to spend $109.4 billion for New York City’s budget in the upcoming fiscal year, unveiling a plan with fewer cuts than he had warned of last year. 

He credited “better-than-expected tax revenues,” more state aid, and reduced spending on foreign migrants, of which thousands have been nudged out of city shelters.

And tax revenue “has been revised up” by $1.3 billion in the current fiscal year and $1.6 billion in the next one, Adams said Tuesday in a speech delivered in the City Hall Blue Room.

"We were able to restore some of the cuts, particularly around public safety, cause I know how important that is,” he said at a news conference the speech.

For the current fiscal year, Adams proposed a $102.7 billion budget at this point last year in the budget cycle. It eventually became about $107 billion following months of negotiations with City Council, which must approve the city's budget. 

In the upcoming spending plan, certain agencies and programs are being spared from cuts, such as the police, fire and sanitation departments, which are to be exempted “to protect public safety and cleanliness,” along with certain library hours and others.

Last week, Adams’ budget office reduced expected costs of food and shelter for the tens of thousands of migrants down to just over $10 billion from about $12 billion. Adams credited the savings to policies that essentially evict individual migrants after 30 days from city shelters and 60 days for families. Shelter seekers can reapply but the bureaucratic process is cumbersome. Those policies have succeeded in “getting 60% of people out of our care,” Adams said.

Still, Adams reiterated the warning about the fiscal impact he’s been sounding for months about the migrant crisis, which has seen 170,000 people who crossed into the United States pass through the city’s homeless shelter system since April 2022. 

And the city still faces billions of dollars in budget gaps in future budgets.

“We're not out of the woods,” Adams said, and more cuts could come in the future. 

The city's elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams, voiced skepticism Tuesday about Adams' budget proposal. Williams and other critics have said the proposal has been misleading.

“Let's be clear: restoring key services in this budget is vital, though it does not undo the several previous rounds of cuts or the damage done,” Williams said.

“This restoration isn’t the result of solid budgeting, but misleading math — single-handedly slashing services based on inaccurate projections, then reversing them. New Yorkers' trust in government erodes any time they are misinformed by government about policies and programs.”

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.