Mayor slaps city agencies with billion-dollar cuts

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
The holiday season notwithstanding, Mayor Eric Adams announced multi-million-dollar end-of-year city agency budget cuts.
NYC Mayor Adams has called for the immediate 5% (plus another 2024 – 5 %) draconian cut to all city agencies.

NYC public schools are facing $547 million in funding loss.
On the day of the announcement on Thursday, November 16, there was a rally outside City Hall with teachers, parents, education advocates, and United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew.
Mayor Adams said, “For months, we have warned New Yorkers about the challenging fiscal situation our city faces. To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into its own budget to find savings with minimal disruption to services. And while we pulled it off this time, make no mistake: Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”
After-school programs are set to be decimated; library opening hours are slashed. The Department of Social Services budget will be cut by $322 million. The hiring of police and fire department recruits will be lessened.
Perhaps New York City rats are rejoicing since there will be fewer curbside pick-ups.
“We are in a city full of rats, and they are talking about cutting back services,” said Carrie Goodine, a recently retired 25-year sanitation worker. She told Our Time Press, “Garbage doesn’t get better sitting outside, it gets worse.”
Mayor Adams telegraphed his intent to cut city agency funds back in September. In a statement, he opined, “Without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will only be the beginning.”
Despite a 2024 $111 billion city budget, the administration said there will be a $7 billion deficit in 2025.

Mayor Adams’ Chief Advisor Ingrid P. Lewis-Martin said, “We must balance our budget in the wake of the $12 billion that we project to spend as a result of the migrant crisis. Our budget has been balanced with heavy hearts. Our administration is outraged to have to implement these cuts, which are a direct result of the lack of financial support from Washington, D.C., which is derelict in its responsibility to institute a national plan to mitigate a national crisis and has instead elected to dump its job to handle this migrant crisis upon the lap of a municipality and its mayor. A national crisis demands a national solution.”
Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Interim Co-Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education, dismissed Mayor Adams’ migrant narrative.
“The Mayor’s proposal to cut a billion dollars over the next two years is an insult,” she told Our Time Press. “The fact that he is blaming asylum seekers and newcomers as the reason why he has to do it – we reject that. It really isn’t them. We know that it is his incompetence.
Over the last few years, we had a real opportunity to transform what was happening in our public schools with the $7 billion that we got from the American Rescue Plan and the hundreds of millions of dollars that we got through the fulfillment finally from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity…Instead, we have spent the last two years fighting the cuts Mayor Adams wants to put on our public schools.”
Ms. Ansari, a mother of eight children and well-known education advocate, continued, “The same day he puts out a statement about the proposed cuts is the same day that the DOE puts out an email saying that they are excited that enrollment is up by 8000 students. So, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t blame asylum seekers and newcomers for the debt that we face and then at the same time say enrollment is up. Leadership doesn’t speak about a fiscal cliff for three years, and does nothing. Doesn’t galvanize the New York Community – and say we’re going to fight on the state level, or we are going to go to the federal government to get any money we need to make sure that our schools have everything that they need. Instead, he continues to blame everybody…The harm he is doing to New York City students is reprehensible.”

“Don’t believe the Mayor’s hype. Don’t believe his numbers,” Councilman Barron told Our Time Press. “The state, they say, has a $22 billion reserve account, and the city has a $8 billion account; a $4 billion unanticipated revenue increase. As far as the stock transfer tax that accumulates as much as $14 billion, they rebate it back to Wall Street. Why? I tried to pass legislation in the Assembly so the city would have that $14 billion every year.
There’s no justification for these cuts. This is Mayor Adams’ austerity budget, his conservative views, and his commitment to the corporate world and Wall Street, as opposed to the people of New York City. He knows damn well that we have an $8 billion reserve budget so that we don’t have to cut $547 million from the school budget and 5% from every city agency. We are not falling off any fiscal cliff.”
The Mayor’s and Chancellor David Banks did not respond to an Our Time Press request for a comment.
Just a week ago, Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks revelled in the news that the influx of children has created the first increase in student enrollment at NYC public schools in eight years.
They stated, “For the 2023-2024 school year, the DOE has seen enrollment increase .., roughly 8,000 students.”
So now, approximately 57 percent of schools are expected to receive $183 million – an average of $209,000 per school – in additional Fair Student Funding.
“We are well positioned to meet the challenges ahead,” said Chancellor Banks. “However…we urgently need increased state and federal funding.”
Yet, the Universal Pre-K program will lose $120 million. Summer Rising is facing a $20 million loss.

“This mayor literally said to parents, teachers, and leaders in our communities that we are not worth the investment in education, and instead of fighting for the people of the great city of New York on the state and federal level, this mayor submitted an excuse of migrant workers coming in and looking for an opportunity to be a part of our city,’ Jamell Henderson told Our Time Press. The NYC Regional Board Chair of Citizen Action of NY continued, “I am deeply disappointed, and the harsh reality is that if our children and young adults don’t have a space or place to maximize their energy, they will find it elsewhere and our communities will be the brunt of the blame for crime. From our libraries to after-school and extracurricular activities, the children of our communities must have the maximum investment of education, and it cannot be taken away now at this crucial time.”