Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday said that his recent cuts to the Police and Education Departments are on “top of the list” of reductions he would be looking to reverse if his administration can find a way to do so.
Hizzoner last month made cuts to both the NYPD and DOE as part of a sweeping 5% belt-tightening measure across city agencies aimed at closing a projected $7.1 billion budget deficit over the next fiscal year — Fiscal Year 2025. Adams and his budget director, Jacques Jiha, argue that the gap must be closed before the release of his FY25 preliminary budget in January.
The cuts resulted in the postponing of the next five NYPD academy classes, the elimination of early childhood education seats, reduction in the number of litter baskets in the outer-boroughs, and cutting of Sunday service at most public libraries.
But while the mayor said those two areas would be top of mind for any restorations, he did not make any promises about reversing the cuts during his weekly off-topic news conference at City Hall on Dec. 12.
“We’re going to analyze how to close a $7 billion budget gap,” Adams said. “And I’ve made it clear, I almost turned it into a slogan, public safety is the prerequisite to our prosperity. We can’t do anything in this city if we’re not safe. And we must invest in our children because if we don’t educate, we will incarcerate … And so our children and our safety is at the top of the list.”
Adams has warned two more rounds of 5% cuts are on the way with the release of the January plan and his executive budget in April. He announced last month that the NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation Department would be spared from the next two rounds of cuts.
The mayor’s comments came after a marathon 11-hour City Council hearing on Monday, where council members, union leaders and advocates casted his broad cuts as both disastrous and unnecessary. City lawmakers also took issue with Adams’ assertion that the city’s fiscal problems are being driven by outsize spending on sheltering tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants.
The council also contends there is enough money to undo some of the trims while keeping the budget balanced, due to an additional projected $1.2 billion in revenue it forecasts for the current fiscal year.
Adams said he is open to suggestions for how the budget gap could be closed, while reversing some of the cuts, but they have to be “very specific” and “make sense.”
“So when people tell me, ‘Okay Eric, just cut the police department by 60%, that’s just not logical,” he said.
In response to the mayor’s comments, Council Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) said that many of the priorities the council fought for earlier this year in budget negotiations with the mayor were the first areas to be cut.
“It’s not lost on this Council that many of the things we prioritized during negotiations and shook hands on just a few months ago were some of the first up on the chopping block,” he said.
