Press Release
CSS Statement on Mayor’s Budget Cuts
On the eve of the Thanksgiving Holiday, Mayor Eric Adams is warning New Yorkers to prepare for painful spending cuts and reduced services as his administration tries to get control over growing costs associated with the influx of asylum seekers into the city. The mayor must plug a projected $7.1 billion budget deficit as federal pandemic financial aid, which bolstered city spending, is coming to an end and forecasts of lower than expected tax revenues, according to his office.
Given the sheer scale of the cuts the mayor is proposing to right the city’s fiscal ship – which will affect public education, library programming, healthcare services, social and homeless services, migrant services, funding for CUNY students and other critical services to New Yorkers but have temporarily spared police, fire and sanitation – transparency is critically important. Especially with independent government watchdog groups claiming the administration has overstated migrant costs.
New Yorkers deserve to know the justification behind such devastating budget cuts. After all, New York generates trillions in economic activity – driven primarily by New York City – and has a base of city taxpayers who can afford a $110 billion plus budget.
However, should these cuts go through, they will no doubt compound an already dire economic situation for many of the city’s low-income working households, 50 percent of whom report struggling to afford basic needs such as food, healthcare, housing and transportation.
The mayor knows the pain these cuts will inflict on the city’s most vulnerable citizens because he’s lived through such pain himself. His rise to become the city’s 110th mayor, and the city’s second Black mayor, is a story of perseverance and determination against long odds. He has experienced poverty, lived with the threat of homelessness as a youth and did a stint in Spofford Youth Detention Center, an unfortunate rite of passage at the time for many of the city’s Black and Latino young men.
And while we agree with the mayor’s call for Albany and Washington to do more to mitigate the impact of the current humanitarian crisis on the city’s coffers, every crisis that befalls the city cannot be a reason to impose painful spending cuts in the name of austerity. Such drastic action will only put further strain on our city’s resources and cost New Yorkers more in the long run.
Over the weeks to come, we strongly urge the mayor to consider alternatives to some of the most regressive cuts outlined in his November budget modification that spare critical programs that the city’s lowest income households rely on. One thing the mayor could do is use his leverage to push the Governor and Legislature to consider taxing the super-rich and big corporations to close the budget gap. Revenue raising options like those proposed earlier this year by the City Comptroller should also be on the table.
During these fraught budgetary times, easing the burden on families who are struggling should be a priority. And that includes the current migrants and their families. They are not unlike the millions of immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island, between 1892 and 1954, after fleeing persecution, prejudice and poverty. Then and now, they come to New York for the same reasons: a better life. They are the ones who have always made New York City great.