(The Center Square) — Increased spending on public safety, housing and mental health are among the highlights of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ nearly $115 billion budget, bolstered by reduced spending on migrant costs.
The preliminary spending plan, which requires city council approval, is about $2.5 billion from the current fiscal year’s budget.
Unlike the previous fiscal year budget, the spending plan doesn’t include any proposed cuts and services or programs. Adams boasted that the city’s economy is “booming” because of his administration’s continued “strong fiscal management.”
“Because we set the table for success, we were able to ensure the continuity of critical programs as well as make strategic new investments in public safety, affordability and quality of life that benefit working class New Yorkers,” the mayor said in remarks on Thursday.
The city’s finances have been bolstered by lower-than-forecast spending on migrants, Adams said, as the number of asylum seekers from other countries has dwindled significantly, from 69,000 last January to under 50,000 currently.
As of December, the state has spent nearly $7 billion on costs related to migrants, significantly less than the $12 billion the city’s budget writers had previously projected would be spent to date.
The plan also calls for earmarking $137 million in the 2026 budget to address homelessness and mental health issues, part of a $650 million proposal he unveiled during his State of the City address last week.
But Adams cautioned that there is uncertainty about the future of federal funding under the incoming Trump administration, which could impact the city’s finances. New York City gets nearly $8 billion in federal aid every year.
“We cannot anticipate the impacts of the incoming federal administration on our city,” Adams said Thursday. “We do not know how new trade, immigration, regulatory, fiscal or grant funding policies will affect New Yorkers.”
Despite the better-than-expected revenue projections, New York City still faces budget deficits of $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2027, $5.4 billion in 2028 and $5.1 billion in 2029, according to the Adams administration.
Andrew Rein, president of the independent Citizens Budget Commission, accused Adams of using “deliberately under-budgeted expenses” to craft the spending plan. He said it falls about $4 billion short of funding existing services. He said the spending plan “simply does not reflect reality.”
“The Administration should break its severe under-budgeting habit and provide credible spending estimates,” he said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve a clear picture of the city’s finances, including overtime, housing vouchers, and homeless shelters.”
Adam’s spending plan comes as the first-term Democrat battles federal bribery charges and gears up to run for reelection, with several Democratic challengers lining up to run against him.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat challenging Adams in June’s mayoral primary, called the budget proposal “lackluster” and criticized it for not bolstering the city’s reserves or the broader financial picture.
“Perhaps the biggest gimmick here is that $2.4 billion of the $2.7 billion that the Mayor is claiming in savings is merely correcting for his past overbudgeting of asylum seeker costs,” Lander said in a statement. “It’s really stretching the budget dance to scapegoat immigrants for the city’s problems, overbudget expenditures on asylum seekers, needlessly threaten to make cuts to libraries and parks, and then claim it as savings.”