By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams recently announced that thanks to measures the City has implemented to responsibly manage the budget and strategically navigate significant fiscal challenges, funding will be restored for the City Police Department to add another police academy class of 600 new recruits set to join the ranks in April. This class of recruits will graduate in October and will join the three additional police classes scheduled to graduate this year. Additionally, Mayor Adams announced that funding will be restored to return a fifth firefighter at 20 FDNY engine companies and maintain 190 firefighters on payroll who are not expected to be able to return to full-duty status.
The funding restorations build on successful efforts by the Adams administration to drive down overall crime, with murders down 12 percent and shootings down 25 percent in 2023. They also follow targeted and effective steps taken by the Adams administration in the face of a $7 billion budget gap in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 due to federal COVID-19 stimulus funding drying up, expenses from labor contracts this administration inherited after being unresolved for years, and the growing costs of the asylum seeker crisis – steps that have included helping put migrants on the path to self-sufficiency and reducing per-diem costs for migrants. The restorations will be reflected in the FY25 Preliminary Budget, which will be presented next Tuesday, at the City Charter deadline.
“We are grateful to the mayor for reinstating the fifth firefighter, providing us additional resources as we tackle emerging challenges like lithium-ion batteries,” said City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. “We know controlling costs is crucial during these tough fiscal times. The department will continue to take every measure necessary to ensure we are spending taxpayer dollars wisely while fulfilling our mission of protecting life and property.”
In August 2023, Adams laid out projections estimating the cost of the asylum seeker crisis to grow to more than $12 billion over three fiscal years – between FY23 and FY25 – if circumstances did not change. From April 2022 through December 2023, the city has already spent an estimated $3.5 billion on shelter and services for over 168,500 individuals who came through the city’s intake center during that timeframe. With sunsetting COVID-19 stimulus funding, slowing tax revenue growth, expenses from labor contracts this administration inherited after being unresolved for years, and a lack of significant state or federal government action on the asylum seeker crisis, Mayor Adams took action – announcing a 5-percent Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) on city-funded spending for all city agencies with plans for additional rounds of PEGs in the Preliminary and Executive Budgets. And, through strong fiscal management that included implementing measures to reduce household per-diem costs and helping put migrants on the path to self-sufficiency, the city is projected to achieve a 20 percent reduction in city-funded spending on the migrant crisis by the end of FY24.
“From the moment these cuts were announced, I joined with leaders of the UFA, UFOA, PBA, and others in calling for the mayor to rethink these decisions — decisions which no doubt would have put the safety of New Yorkers at risk and which would have made the work of our police and firefighters more difficult,” City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) said. “I’m very happy to see that the administration has heard us, and is making the right call on this matter.”
