Adams sees NYC’s looming fiscal horror but isn’t doing enough to stop it
Mayor Eric Adams was plenty clear Wednesday on the city’s beyond-grim fiscal outlook.
But the $106.7 billion budget he unveiled falls short on facing those facts.
You can almost you feel sorry for him. Hizzoner plainly sees the massive funding gaps rapidly approaching.
Yet he won’t face down the feckless lefties demanding hefty funding boosts.
So he’s struggling to thread the needle, ordering $1 billion in agency trims over four years without layoffs or service cuts.
It won’t work.
Progressives may pretend this spending plan is painful, but it doesn’t come close to addressing the city’s real problems.
And that’s on Adams.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” the mayor pleaded, amid questions about possible cuts in library hours.
He noted that “out-year revenue growth” is projected to slow as the nation’s economy cools.
And that the migrant catastrophe, which has already cost the city $4.3 billion, may grow worse as the use of Title 42 to turn away newcomers ends next month.
And that raises in new labor contracts will add still more billions in costs, federal COVID funding is expiring, and the economy may wind down faster than projected, drying up tax revenue.
Yet Adams’ “cuts” barely make a dent in the problem.
Yes, his plan for the coming year, which begins July 1, seems balanced.
But as the Citizens Budget Commission notes, spending has been bolstered not only by expiring COVID aid, but also “extraordinarily high revenues” from Wall Street’s 2021 record year.
The plan fails to fund $1 billion in existing programs.
And the City Council is sure to demand at least $400 million in still more spending.
Even if Gotham does manage to make ends meet next year, Adams cites cash shortfalls at $4.2 billion in 2025, $6 billion in 2026 and $7 billion in 2027 — a monstrous total of $17.2 billion.
Except “the real problems are even larger,” warns the CBC, with actual gaps of $6.8 billion in 2025 and $10 billion by 2027.
The mayor’s budget “lays bare the stark and potentially dark fiscal reality facing New York City,” it said.
The group urges the city to immediately “prioritize” programs, boost efficiency, “speed up critical hiring” and “shrink lower impact programs.” Demand money-saving work-rules changes in labor contracts in exchange for raises.
Accept some “pain” now to avoid utter catastrophe later.
Adams’ words show he knows what needs doing.
Too bad he’s not ready to do it.
