Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, returned again and again at Monday’s City Council budget hearing to the costs of caring for migrants.

“We have welcomed almost 50,000 asylum seekers and are caring for other 30,000,” he said in his opening testimony. “To be blunt, meeting these obligations is now rapidly consuming a massive level of resources.”

Later, in answering council members’ questions, Jiha said, “We’re spending about $150 million a month, $150 million. This is not forecast, this is what we’re spending.”

These costs are a reason for the mayor’s cautious approach to the budget, Jiha said.

Jiha faced questioning Monday from councilmembers concerned that the administration’s belt-tightening is unnecessary.

The city’s Office of Management and Budget “seems to operate out of an abundance of pessimism,” said City Council finance committee chair Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat. “Based on the stronger economy, the council’s forecast sees more in revenues this year and next than OMB does.”

Council members also took issue with efforts to fill the 23,000 job vacancies at city agencies, worried that the city’s most vulnerable are the ones paying the price.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said staff shortages were responsible for service delays.

“For example, HRA’s timeliness rate for the processing of applications SNAP declined in the first four months of the year to 42.3%,” she said.

The back-and-forth in the first of many hearings is part of a process that will produce a final budget for the city by the end of June.

Mayor Adams’ opening bid? The nearly $103 billion preliminary budget he unveiled in January.

At issue for council leaders? The administration’s proposed cuts are backed by lower tax revenue projections and a bleaker economic outlook than forecast by the council or the Independent Budget Office.

“The reason why it’s so important to us is because reduction in headcount reduction in services for New Yorkers, and in some instances, less tax revenue for the city,” Brannan said.

Jiha testified that hiring has been unable to keep up with the rate of attrition, but said the city was making progress on the food assistance program.

“This city has historically been a very passive employer,” he said. “We just wait for people to take exams. Now, we are aggressively pursuing with career fairs throughout the country.”

Points of agreement Monday? The need for flexible work options to attract new hires and the need for work authority for the migrants arriving in the city.

Speaker Adams said, “I think that’s everybody’s goal as well, in witnessing some people getting off of buses and realizing all they want to do is work.”