Mayor Eric Adams warned that the cost of the ongoing migrant crisis will hurt low-income New Yorkers as he’s forced to dip into the city coffers and address the disaster without more federal or state help.
Adams made the dire warning during an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton about a week after he said all NYC agencies may have to slash up to 15% from their budgets by springtime to cover the expenses tied to the crisis.
The Democrat said the city has already spent $2 billion and is projected to spend $5 billion to care for and house asylum seekers pouring into the Biggle Apple.
“That money is going to come from somewhere… If we don’t receive help from the federal government and additional help from the state government, then this is going to come from somewhere,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.” “And it’s going to hurt low-income New Yorkers.”
He called New York “a city of immigrants,” but said no one is winning from the current situation.
“This is wrong for the migrants and asylum-seekers to be going through this. And it’s wrong for long-term New Yorkers that depend on this revenue,” Hizzoner said.
“I have to go back in November and find $5 billion out of our budget. This is just not right to the city.”
Adams has already informed all city agencies that they will need to slash 5% from their budget by November — which adds up to a several billion-dollar trim from the city-funded portion of his $107 billion spending plan.
Additional 5% cuts could follow in both January and April if the city doesn’t receive adequate financial aid from the Biden administration or state legislators by early next year.
“I want to be clear: these tough decisions are a direct result of inaction in Washington and in Albany,” the mayor said in a YouTube video released announcing the budget cuts on Sept. 9.
The city has opened more than 200 emergency shelters to house over 110,000 migrants who are fleeing turmoil and violence in their own countries.
The effort could cost the city up to $12 billion by July 2025.
Last Sunday, Adams double-downed on his controversial claim that the overwhelming crisis would “destroy” NYC, calling it a “financial tsunami.”
“I have to be honest with New Yorkers with what we’re about to experience — a financial tsunami that I don’t think this city has ever experienced,” Adams told PIX 11’s “PIX on Politics.”
“This is not utopia. New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight,” he said. “That can’t happen, and that is going to undermine this entire city.”