New York City and State announced their preliminary budgets for fiscal year 2025 (FY25) this Tuesday. Both Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams spoke about the financial impact of the migrant influx.
The state’s executive budget is $233 billion. Hochul said she plans to invest in over $347 million in public safety, reduce gun violence, address retail theft; $7.9 billion for the MTA and $16 million towards the Second Avenue Subway extension in Manhattan; $4.8 billion for the mental health system; $35.3 billion in total school aid; and $35.5 billion for Medicaid, among other items.
“This budget makes it clear that fiscal discipline can co-exist with progressive, people-driven policies,” said Hochul in a statement. “I am committed to fight the right fights on behalf of New Yorkers, and to pursue the common good with common sense—by seeking common ground.”
In terms of the asylum seeker costs, Hochul has dedicated $1.9 billion over the past fiscal year to help the city out, and will increase state support to $2.4 billion. This includes $500 million from the state’s reserves, which are intended for use during one-time emergencies, said the governor’s office.
Adams responded to the state budget before releasing his own budget. He said, in a statement, that he was thankful for the Hochul’s recognition of the city’s efforts in managing the asylum seeker crisis and the state’s continued financial support, her housing production initiatives, and her support for extending mayoral control of the city’s public schools. The state education board is currently working to review mayoral control in a series of public hearings.
“Governor Hochul’s full-throated support for four years of mayoral accountability in our schools is yet another ringing endorsement of the work our administration has done and continues to do to drive test scores and enrollment up,” said Adams. “We are leading the way in reimagining how we teach our young people fundamental skills like reading, screening every student in our public school system for dyslexia, and preparing young New Yorkers for good-paying careers in fast-growing fields.”
The city’s preliminary budget is $109.4 billion with an unprecedented $8.2 billion in reserves. Adams said there’s a $7.1 billion budget gap due to the growing asylum seeker crisis, drying up federal COVID-19 stimulus funding, expenses from labor contracts, and slowing tax revenue growth, which led to a citywide hiring freeze and necessary budget cuts.
To date, the city said it has provided care for more than 170,700 asylum seekers, with over 68,000 currently still in the city’s care. The city began moving migrant families out of hotels on Jan. 10 to unburden the shelter system by imposing a 60-day limit on shelter stays. Adams said they have reduced the costs associated with the migrant crisis from $12.25 billion to $10.6 billion from FY23 through FY25.
“With responsible and effective management, we have been able to provide care for asylum seekers and balance the budget—without unduly burdening New Yorkers with a penny in tax hikes or massive service reductions, and without laying off a single city worker,” said Adams.
On Jan. 12, Adams announced the restoration of $10 million in funding to public schools and $80 million in the Summer Rising program. Funding was also restored to the NYPD for new recruits, the FDNY to maintain firefighters on payroll who are not expected to be able to return to full-duty status, and to sanitation to manage garbage. Additionally, the city’s three library systems were exempted from further budget cuts to avoid impacts to services.
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams added in a statement that it is vital for the city and state’s budgetary investments to match the urgency of the moment with equitable funding. She said that students need more support to recover from pandemic-era learning losses and that the city needs a more comprehensive approach to the housing crisis. She had similar sentiments about more funding for people seeking asylum and for boosting investment in the long-term health for New Yorkers.
Of course, immigrant advocate groups criticized the city and state for their budgets.
CARE for Immigrant Families said the state needs at least another $150 million added to the allocated $88 million for immigration legal services and to pass the Access to Representation Act (ARA), which is the right to legal representation in immigration cases. New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) Executive Director Murad Awawdeh commended Hochul’s budget but agreed that more funding for immigration legal services is needed to help people change their immigration status and attain work authorizations.
“Governor Hochul’s State of the State made scant mention of immigrant New Yorkers. But this FY25 budget proposal makes clear that even the Governor believes immigrants are key to New York’s economy, population growth, and future success,” said Awawdeh in a statement.
In contrast, Awawdeh said that Adams’s preliminary budget seemed like more of an “attempt” to boost his polling numbers than anything else. And he pointed out that Adams’s budget didn’t reflect the state’s allocations for immigration since it was released on the same day.
“According to the Mayor, this reversal of budget cuts from November was due to increased revenues, downward adjusted census projections for new arrivals, and anticipated cost-savings from things like renegotiating contracts with expensive no-bid shelter operators and moving some social service delivery to nonprofit groups—both of which were solutions proposed by organizations like ours for the past year,” said Awawdeh. “It’s nice to see the Mayor seize on good ideas and make them his own. But it would have been better if he had co-opted another good idea: expanding access to housing vouchers to New Yorkers regardless of immigration status, saving the City $3 billion while getting people out of shelters and on the road to stability and independence.”
Awawdeh added that Adams’s “failure” to take responsibility for issuing 30- and 60-day shelter leave notices to immigrant families and children is harmful.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.