Mayor Eric Adams’ financial forecast was scrutinized on Monday at the City Council’s first hearing on the city’s preliminary budget.

The City Council questioned the city’s budget director on several topics ranging from the migrant crisis to budget cuts to the mayor’s financial priorities.

What You Need To Know

  • The City Council questioned the Adams administration on a range of topics including budget cuts and the migrants crisis

  • Local lawmakers have been at odds with Mayor Eric Adams over his decision to make multiple cuts to city agencies including the libraries, cultural institutions and early childhood development

  • Monday's hearing was the first in a series of hearings the council will hold analyzing the mayor's preliminary 2025 budget that is set at $109.4 billion

  • A final budget agreement must be reached before July 1

Adams unveiled a $109 billion budget in January that included cuts to education, libraries and social services.

“Now more than ever, our communities are relying on core services and programs to survive and remain in our city,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said.  

The City Council is looking for answers to those decisions.

“Schools where lunch menus are being cut and running out of food, early childhood education, there are thousands of parents who are desperately hoping to qualify for a 3-K lottery, and finally with these cuts there are parks across the city that won’t receive cleaning services,” Councilmember Shekar Krishnan said at the hearing Monday.

The mayor’s budget director pushed back against the criticism, saying the city had to make the reductions facing a multi-billion dollar gap.

“The challenge that we’re dealing with was so large in terms of gap that we had to close that we had to rely on every agency to make a contribution,” Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget Director Jacque Jiha said.

The City Council also questioned why certain departments were exempted from some cuts like the fire, police, and sanitation departments over others.

“What was the decision-making process for determining those agencies that weren’t included in the preliminary plan peg?” the council speaker said.

To which the budget director explained it was a matter of priorities for the mayor.

“The mayor decided that public safety and cleanliness and, to some extent, education were some of the priorities of his administration,” Jiha said.

The council speaker noted that the restorations were made without consulting local lawmakers who wanted to weigh in.

“This body is responsible for oversight hearings to discover those priorities for the city and any subsequent priorities or decisions made should have been a collaborative effort,” the council speaker said.

One other area that councilmembers focused on was the costs of the migrant crisis.

City officials said Monday the city has spent more than $4 billion on the crisis as of last month with little state and federal help. Of the $156 million the federal government has provided, the city has only received about $49 million.

City officials say they plan to cut spending to the crisis another 10%.

“Our goal is to reduce the per diem costs to generate savings by changing the staffing model, by changing the service model that we have, and moving away from for-profit providers to non-for-profit providers,” Jiha said.

The hearings come just one day after the City Council forecasted an additional $3.3 billion in tax revenue over the next two years.

“The mayor’s preliminary budget contains a number of omissions and risks that are critical to address in the executive budget which these additional revenues can help facilitate,” the council speaker said.