The King and the Pauper of Queens

Remember when Zohran proclaimed he would "Trump-proof" New York City as Mayor, this is the reason why he never will.

Mayor Eric Adams may be on a visit to Israel, but Monday he left Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a headache. He increased the budget for city government spending in the current fiscal year by about $2 billion to $118 billion, bequeathing a projected $4.7 billion deficit to be closed before the 2027 budget is adopted next summer. And he offered no plans to deal with federal aid cuts that could reach billions of dollars. The November report provides an update on where the city stands financially with the current fiscal year and the three future years it is required to project. Mamdani will have to propose his own budget by Feb. 1, a month after taking office.

The mayor’s added spending included new commitments Adams has been touting in recent weeks including money to start adding 5,000 additional police officers — while Mamdani has said he wants to keep the police force at its current level of about 34,000 officers.

Adams’ move came in for criticism from outgoing Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) and finance chair Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), who called it irresponsible to saddle future budgets with money for new police officers without addressing the fact that the city is unable to keep staffing at current levels because it can’t retain officers. The mayor also increased money for rental assistance and expanded a caregiver program for elderly residents by 3,000 spots. The mayor also increased expected revenues in November for the first time in his four years in office, adding a little more than $400 million for 2026. And he says he is leaving the city in good financial shape. “Over the course of four on-time, annual budgets, our administration has delivered for working-class New Yorkers time and again, and this November financial plan update is another example of how our strong fiscal management is making New York City safer, more affordable, and improving New Yorkers’ quality of life,” he said in a statement. NYPD officers arrest an anti-ICE protester outside the Federal Building in Lower Manhattan.

Budget experts don’t agree. The Citizens Budget Commission responds that the administration is underestimating costs by as much as $4 billion, including at least $1 billion for city-funded housing vouchers and $600 million for homeless shelters. And police overtime is almost always higher than projected in the budget. “This plan simply reaffirms that Mayor-elect Mamdani’s first budget proposal will have to close a $5 billion to $8 billion budget gap, prepare for federal hits, and fund progress on his priorities,” CBC President Andrew Rein said.

Caption Mayor Eric Adams

 

Please, "on topics" only. 

 

We're broke

Crain's New York

 As public and private watchdogs over New York City’s fiscal health, our mandate is to alert the public when the city faces an alarming financial situation. That moment has arrived: major looming budget gaps will have serious consequences for New Yorkers, unless action is taken now.

Many New Yorkers already sense the stress given how the staggering influx of asylum seekers and migrants has strained social services and the budget. The city estimates these costs may grow next year to equal what it spends to run the sanitation and parks departments combined.

But the billions of dollars the city will spend to care for these new arrivals is only one significant contributor to the fiscal shortfall — at most, 42 percent of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget gap. Our organizations project that gap for next year could be $9.9 billion and possibly up to $13.8 billion, even with the lower estimate assuming higher tax revenues and lower migrant costs than the city’s Office of Management and Budget anticipates.

The major underlying cause of the budget gap comes from years of added and expanded city programs that — at best — were supported only for a short time by non-recurring revenue or — at worst — not funded at all. City-funded spending has increased more than 50% over the past decade while recurring revenues have not kept pace. Despite the urging of our offices, few efforts have focused on increasing efficiency or shrinking lower impact programs, which could have allowed ongoing revenue to be sufficient to avoid future cuts.

The city and its unions agreed to reasonable raises for city workers, but did not identify how the $16 billion they added to the budget will be funded. The city also used federal Covid aid and a temporary tax revenue surge from record Wall Street bonuses to fund and grow over $2.5 billion of programs, from housing vouchers to education for 3-year-olds. Spending on overtime, special education and other services also regularly exceeds the budget. We are now facing what we call a “fiscal cliff,” because when funds dry up, the budget gap expands or programs must be cut.

What to do now? Knowing a reckoning is approaching, Mayor Eric Adams has rightly called for immediate action to stabilize the budget, directing city agencies to propose one round of 5% savings and be prepared for another two, amounting to nearly 15% in total. This is not easy, and must be done right to minimize impact on critical services. And it would be a futile task if city leaders continue to add spending: Adams’ four previous savings plans were helpful, but new spending that was simultaneously added amounted to more than double the planned savings.

107 billion dollar semi-austerity city budget passes in time for holiday weekend

For a few billion dolllars more...

NY Post

The price of everything is going up — even the city budget!

Mayor Adams and the City Council announced a record-breaking city budget at $101 billion Friday, blowing past the $98.7 billion budget deal his predecessor Bill de Blasio struck with lawmakers last year.

The deal between Hizzoner and Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) adds $1.4 billion in new spending on top of what the mayor proposed in his formal budget layout in April — and is $2.6 billion above City Hall’s preliminary estimate in January.

“This is not a dysfunctional Council and this is darn sure not a dysfunctional mayoral administration,” Adams said, as he and the lawmakers touted the earlier than usual budget deal. “We’re going to function and we’re going to GSD: Get stuff done.”

Still, the deal swells the Big Apple’s potential budget deficits over the coming three years, prompting new warnings from budget watchdogs over spending amid soaring inflation and worries about a potential recession.

The expected shortfall for the 2024 budget now stands at $4.2 billion, up from $3.9 billion projected in April. The expected gaps between expected revenues and spending for the 2025 and 2026 budgets grew too.

 

99 and a half will do and more

NY Post 

It’s good to be the Mayor!

Eric Adams’ office made out the best among the Big Apple’s more than two dozen major city agencies, scoring a 25 percent bump in his recently unveiled $99.7 billion city budget proposal, a Post analysis found.

Adams has requested $204 million for his 1,400-strong executive operation, up from the $163 million de Blasio allotted to his office during his final year running the city.

“One of the easy criticisms of the de Blasio administration was growing the Mayor’s Office budget,” said Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “Everyone can see litter in the street and understand the need for more sanitation workers, so what’s the plainly obvious reason for this?”

Most of the $41 million boost is dedicated to a major expansion of the division of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, which reviews spending agreements and tracks vendor performance.

Adams’ budget would increase MOCS’s budget from $26.5 million to $59 million and add another 47 employees, expanding its headcount from 197 to 244 employees.

99 and a half won't do

NY Post

Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a record-busting $99.7 billion budget proposal on Tuesday fueled in part by an uptick in tax revenues, spending that he argued is essential for the Big Apple’s comeback from the coronavirus pandemic.

Adams unfurled his spending pitch to the City Council with great fanfare during a 50-minute speech at the historic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, during which he highlighted his new anti-gun and homelessness initiatives, hiring hundreds of new corrections officers for embattled jail system and new funding to clean the Big Apple’s streets and parks.

“This budget puts people — especially those who have often been left behind — front and center. Success will be measured by how much we accomplish, not how much we spend,” he said. “Despite the massive shocks to our system in the past two years, our city enters fiscal year 2023 on strong financial footing.”

Hizzoner’s new spending plan would increase the Police Department’s annual budget from the $5.4 billion authorized by lawmakers to $5.6 billion and spending on the Department of Homeless Services would rise from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.

The massive Department of Education would see its allocation trimmed back from $31.6 billion to $31 billion, primarily due to enrollment declines and leaving hundreds of unfilled positions open.

Boss Cojo's binge, purge and splurge city budget

 

NY Post

The Independence Day celebration started early for many New York activists and groups seeking taxpayer funding — thanks to the seasoned pork stuffed into the record-spending, $98.7 billion city budget just approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council.

Awash with nearly $16 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds, a lame-duck de Blasio and many-term limited Council members rammed more discretionary funding into virtually every nook and cranny of the budget, documents reviewed by The Post reveal.

Council members have the authority to steer millions of dollars to pet programs — and boy, did they ever, likely saddling the next administration and New Yorkers with a yawning deficit.

The amount of funding spent via council initiatives exploded from $376 million last year to $516 million this year — a 37 percent increase, according to city budget documents. The overall increase is even up 13 percent over the $454 million spent in the pre-pandemic Fiscal Year 2020.

  Some of the money seems to be burning a hole in people’s pockets,” said Andrew Rein, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Rein said that in general the mayor and council “are not spending the federal money wisely and strategically” and are leaving the next mayor and council with a projected $5 billion budget gap.

The budget documents show that Speaker Corey Johnson, in particular, is leaving the council with a bang.

The funding under Johnson’s direct control — the Speaker’s Initiatives to Address Citywide Needs — skyrocketed from $6.79 million last year to $34.65 million in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget the council passed on June 30. That’s a 410-percent increase.

The boost in spending surfaced after critics privately grumbled that Johnson used his power over the budget as a slush fund to leverage support in his run for city comptroller, a position that is intended to serve as a fiscal watchdog for the city.

And the boost wasn’t merely making up for cuts in spending during the pandemic last year. Two years ago, the Speaker’s Fund spent $12.8 million — so, it’s still up 170 percent from pre-pandemic spending.

“This dramatic increase in Corey Johnson’s use of taxpayer dollars to benefit his campaign is another example of corruption. Once again, Corey uses the budget to favor those who support him and to punish those who question him,” said Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a rival in the Democratic primary for comptroller.

“Another reason why I insisted on more transparency in the budget process, before the primary when the speaker was using the budget to buy votes.”

 

 

Big spendin' Blaz making the budget money rain

 

NY Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final budget proposal is the biggest ever in city history, a $98.6 billion spending plan — bankrolled by a massive infusion of federal aid — that will finance $2.2 billion in new education expenditures alone, documents show.

The document, released Tuesday, clearly illustrates just how dramatically the Biden administration’s recent $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package has reshaped the Big Apple’s short-term fiscal picture in just three months — with projected spending set to grow by $10.4 billion in just one year and partially filling expected budget gaps in the coming years.

It also provides the first comprehensive accounting of the costs associated with many of de Blasio’s recently announced spending initiatives, many of which are coronavirus-related.