Cuts in migrant spending and better-than-expected tax revenues will allow the city to reinstate two previously canceled police classes and put another 1,600 officers on the streets, Mayor Adams announced Wednesday.
The city will also boost spending in the cash assistance program and the CityFHEPs program.
The budget expansion was made possible in large part thanks to $436 million in cuts to migrant spending since July, with total savings of $785 million, the mayor said. The city will also boost spending in the cash assistance program and the CityFHEPs housing voucher program.
“We made sure we made a smart budget decision so we can build a future for the city’s working people, and this plan is expanding to fund critical programs supported with temporary federal stimulus dollars,” Adams said. “So I want to be clear: the November plan invests in New York and aims to make their lives easier by prioritizing the services they need.”
Previously, the budget for fiscal year 2025 was approximately $112 billion. The new plan, which brings the total to $115 billion, also reflects more than $200 million in unexpected tax revenue this fiscal year, Adams said, with additional funds from debt service and retirement savings.
The reinstated police classes will add 1,600 new officers to the force by October 2025. The classes were canceled in 2023 as part of Adams’ belt-tightening in light of the migrant crisis.
Last year, the mayor unveiled drastic cuts, which he said were necessary to offset the costs of caring for the migrants.
City budget director Jacques Jiha said the migrant cuts this year are due to the fact that the asylum seeker population in the local shelter system has fallen from a high of 69,000 and fewer than expected have come to New York since July.
The city will put $467 million into the cash assistance program and $115 million into the CityFHEPS rental assistance program, Adams said at a news conference announcing both the budget update and the appointment of the new NYPD Commissioner, Jessica Tisch.
New money will also flow to the city’s public schools, including $80 million for technology resources and $65 million for contract nurses, according to the budget plans.
Other new budget funds include funding for a planned inpatient unit for patients in custody with serious health conditions, staffing for “Operation Padlock to Protect,” new positions in the sheriff’s electronic ankle monitoring program and investments in the city’s waste management initiatives.
Andrew Rein, chairman of the budget watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, said the budget update brought “good news” but warned the city could face budget shortfalls of about $3 billion more than the city has forecast.
“While the city has used more than $1 billion in newly identified funds to fund predictable deficits in the current year, it continues to forgo billions of dollars in future spending on overtime, housing vouchers, public assistance and early childhood programs, among other things. ,” Rein said in a statement.
