Mayor Eric Adams delivers address on $99.7B 2023 NYC budget
Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a record-busting $99.7 billion budget proposal on Tuesday fueled in part by an uptick in tax revenues, spending that he argued is essential for the Big Apple’s comeback from the coronavirus pandemic.
Adams unfurled his spending pitch to the City Council with great fanfare during a 50-minute speech at the historic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, during which he highlighted his new anti-gun and homelessness initiatives, hiring hundreds of new corrections officers for embattled jail system and new funding to clean the Big Apple’s streets and parks.
“This budget puts people — especially those who have often been left behind — front and center. Success will be measured by how much we accomplish, not how much we spend,” he said. “Despite the massive shocks to our system in the past two years, our city enters fiscal year 2023 on strong financial footing.”
Hizzoner’s new spending plan would increase the Police Department’s annual budget from the $5.4 billion authorized by lawmakers to $5.6 billion and spending on the Department of Homeless Services would rise from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.
The massive Department of Education would see its allocation trimmed back from $31.6 billion to $31 billion, primarily due to enrollment declines and leaving hundreds of unfilled positions open.
Adams’ formal budget spends $1.2 billion more than his initial plan outlined in February — and $1 billion more than the $98.7 billion budget deal his predecessor Bill de Blasio struck with lawmakers last year.
City Hall’s 240-page spending plan for the first time reveals the price tags attached to several of Adams’ key initiatives. For example, the Department of Homeless Services is getting an extra $175 million for Adams’ new campaign to bring homeless New Yorkers in off the subways. And his plan calls for spending $59 million to bring on another 578 correction officers, which officials say they need to staff the Rikers Island jail comoplex as Adams attempts to overhaul its maligned solitary confinement system.
There is also $41 million to hire 774 new Parks Department, the bulk of whom will be dedicated to cleaning and maintenance in the city’s green spaces. Despite the added positions, the budget for city parks and recreation would fall slightly under Adams’ proposal.
Additionally, Adams called for spending another $500 million annually on public housing repairs and the construction or preservation of subsidized housing for working class and middle class residents. The boost will raise the amount of New York City’s major construction budget dedicated to the Housing Authority and Department of Housing Preservation and Development from around $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion annually.
“We must commit to creating the affordable housing that New Yorkers have needed for far too long,” said Adams.
Budget officials afterward said the extra money would allow New York to continue to build or preserve 25,000 units of affordable housing annually — a goal that would not be possible by 2025 without the boost due to rising costs and inflation.
The mayor billed the new investment as “historic” in his speech, but it’s just a quarter of the $2 billion boost that housing advocates have demanded in recent weeks, which would have raised overall spending to $4 billion a year.
NYCHA alone once faced a repair bill that exceeded more than $40 billion repair bill to get its then-187,000 units back into a state of good repair — a number that has slowly ticked down as roughly 10,000 apartments have been converted to joint public-private management to access new federal funds for renovations.
Adams and the City Council must strike a deal on a formal spending plan by July 1.
“The Executive Budget takes some positive steps but focuses on spending more, nearly to the exclusion of the savings, restructuring and efficiency needed to shore up the city’s fiscal house,” said Andrew Rein, chief of the Citizens Budget Commission.
He warned the new spending, without finding additional cuts, would be “chipping away at the city’s long-run ability to protect future New Yorkers from economic instability or unnecessary service cuts.”
City Hall pointed to its plans to dedicate $1.7 billion over five years to the city’s savings account for future labor deals as well as contributions to the Big Apple’s reserves, which Adams would grow by $1.2 billion to $6.3 billion.
The budget was helped thanks to tax revenue projections for 2023 that jumped $392 million in the two months since Adams’ initial February plan.
City-only sources of revenue are now expected to generate $66.3 billion — before it receives any share of federal or state funding.
Adams’ declared in his speech that the state of the city was “strong,” before pivoting to focus on New York City’s highly-publicized violent crime spike.
“There is no doubt in my mind that New York will make a full recovery and come back stronger and more resilient than before. But this is only possible if we continue to make public safety our top priority. Safety and justice are the prerequisites of prosperity,” he said. “We cannot have a city where people are afraid to walk the streets, ride the subway, or send their children to school.”
He ran through the list of tragedies that have hammered New York during the opening days of his four-year term: the Bronx fire that killed dozens, the 11-month old baby fatally shot in the head by a stray bullet, the deadly ambush shooting of two police officers in Harlem, and a 19-year-old girl who was gunned gunned down while she worked the night shift at a fast food restaurant.
Hizzoner promised progress — even with major crimes up some 37 percent so far this year — and pointed to the 2,300 illegal guns seized by cops so far as proof his administration is making a dent in the crisis.
“We’re about to start a new chapter in the New York story,” Adams told the crowd of more than a thousand as he ended his speech.
“This is the part where we find the compassion to house, help, and educate everyone,” he added. “The wisdom to put aside the old arguments and embrace our newfound unity. And the courage to work together in solidarity to build a city of hope, equity, and justice.”
Additional reporting by Cayla Bamberger
