What do you do if you're facing historic disapproval ratings that stem in no small part from draconian budget cuts you've pushed through that have decimated the City's social services?
If you're Mayor Eric Adams, you pivot and walk some of those cuts back, despite months of blaming migrants for the need to slash essential services. On Wednesday, the mayor announced that additional across-the-board spending cuts planned for April would be canceled, and that the City's hiring freeze would be lifted (kind of—for every two vacancies, agencies can now fill one of them). This bit of moderately cheery news comes after he announced last month that he was restoring a small amount of funding (that he had cut) to several agencies and programs, and unveiled a preliminary budget for the next year that, as Politico noted, "revised revenue projections upward by a stunning $3 billion."
Adams took credit for reversing cuts that he himself had pushed for. "The combination of our tough, but necessary financial management decisions, including cutting asylum seeker spending by billions of dollars, along with better-than-expected economic performance in 2023, is allowing us to cancel the last round of spending cuts, as well as lift the near total freezes on city hiring and other than personal spending," Adams wrote in a statement.
But was any of this budget whiplash necessary? The City Council and budget forecasters like the Independent Budget Office have claimed for months that City Hall was wildly underestimating projected revenue, as well as overestimating the costs of housing migrants. I guess they were right! And beyond the question of whether slashing services was even needed, now claiming a surprise boost in revenue doesn't exactly bolster Adams's argument that the City needs more funding from the state, as well as from the feds.
In a statement, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and the council's Finance Chair Justin Brannan wrote that they were "relieved." "As the Council's economists forecasted, New York City's economy has proven durable and resilient, and blunt cuts that had a disproportionately negative impact on vital programs were never necessary," they wrote. They added, "We look forward to negotiating in good faith a budget that delivers for all New Yorkers."
And links that will absolutely deliver for all New Yorkers:
- Relatedly, Adams's budget announcement came as he and Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser were in St. Louis on a taxpayer-funded trip, despite a ban on publicly funded out-of-state travel for City officials. City Hall defended the trip, which included a jaunt to a jazz gala where Adams received an award, as "essential."
- Perhaps the next budget should fund NYCHA so there aren't thousands of vacant apartments in our public housing system.
- "Bronx NYPD sergeant called out for improper street stops, poor record keeping"
- Prosecutors in Maricopa County, Arizona, are throwing some chum to the "New York City is too weak on crime" crowd.
- "Scenes From Closing Day at a Bronx Benefits Center"
- The City Council's push to allow legal permanent residents to vote in elections was found unconstitutional by a state court.
- In what can only be seen as a move to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, some conservative Democrats in the state legislature now want to classify blocking roads and bridges as "domestic terrorism."
- Fuck you, Bruce Blakeman.
- "Use of pepper spray at Rikers Island is skyrocketing, even on suicidal detainees: report"
- The yakuza are back, baby!
- "MTA contractors underpaid NYC subway cleaners during height of COVID, lawsuit alleges"
- Ahoy! The parent company of NYC Ferry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, but in a court hearing said its lucrative NYC ferry contract will not be impacted by corporate restructuring.
- Via the CITY: "The state has levied more than $25 million in fines against unlicensed smoke shops for selling cannabis products since last year, but so far only a minuscule percent of those fines have been collected by both the state Tax Department and the Office of Cannabis Management, THE CITY has learned…The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said it has collected $22,500 in fines from unlicensed shops. The Department of Taxation and Finance has collected $0 in fines so far, said sources familiar with the state’s enforcement progress."
- "We all know, in the back of our minds, that Fire Island as we know it is not going to last forever."
