NYC Mayor Eric Adams Announces Budget Cuts Amid Migrant Crisis, Plans To Reduce Police Numbers And Education Funding

Adams claims that the "sanctuary" city spent $1.45 billion in 2023 grappling with the influx of migrants

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a $110.5 billion budget with major cuts to police departments and education in an effort to help solve the ongoing migrant crisis. Adams alleged that the “sanctuary” city spent $1.45 billion in 2023 grappling with the influx of those seeking refuge, Yahoo News reports.

“For months, we have warned New Yorkers about the challenging fiscal situation our city faces,” he said. “To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services. And while we pulled it off this time, make no mistake: Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”

The proposed cuts call for a hiring freeze for the New York Police Department, causing the number of officers to drop below 30,000 for the first time in nearly four decades, The New York Times reports. A two-year, $1 billion decrease in funding to the Education Department is also part of Adams’ new budget, weakening summer school programs and plans for universal pre-K.

“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will be only the beginning,” Adams said at a press conference on Nov. 16. “In all my time in government, this is probably one of the most painful exercises I’ve gone through.”

New York City Council members criticized the mayor’s drastic budget cut proposal, claiming his plans would have the worst effect on working-class families.

“Mayor Adams’s unnecessary, dangerous, and draconian budget cuts will only worsen New York’s affordability crisis and delay our city’s economic recovery by cutting funding for the schools, child care, food assistance, and more that help New Yorkers live and raise families in this city,” said Lincoln Restler, a chair of the City Council’s progressive caucus.

The president of the city’s police union also called on Mayor Adams to reconsider his plan to move resources from law enforcement.

“This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets,” President Patrick Hendry said. “Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s.”

The NYPD has been one of the most controversial police departments in the nation, and Adams’ support of the usage of “stop-and-frisk” laws has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years.