New York’s Finest and Bravest are projected to blow their overtime budgets by a combined $137 million this fiscal year, a state watchdog has told The Post.
The biggest chunk comes from the NYPD, which is on its way to spending $111 million more than the $615 million it budgeted for overtime in Fiscal Year 2020, according to a Financial Control Board analysis of city data.
NYPD insiders couldn’t point to any significant incidents to account for the runaway OT since the fiscal year started in July, but one source blamed brass for refusing to cut off OT-hungry officers.
“There’s really been no major events in the city. There have been no terror attacks,” said the source. “It’s just poor fiscal management coming from senior leadership.”
The source said cops have grown to believe they’re entitled to rack up 40 hours of overtime every month thanks to upper management that fails to scrutinize what work it’s getting for all those extra dollars.
“A lot of the officers are planning it and scheming it. Part of the act of management is to detect overtime patterns,” said the insider. “It takes labor and pain to actively manage overtime, and that’s not happening right now.”
But the force isn’t alone in its projected cost overruns, the board found.
The FDNY is on pace to spend $26 million more than the $259 million it set aside for overtime, the board claims, although City Hall pegs the overrun at only $10 million.
However, the board projects that other city agencies are coming in well under their overtime projections, potential savings that could help to offset the costs racked up by the NYPD and FDNY.
The Department of Sanitation, for example, is on a pace to spend $41 million less than the $133 million it has squirreled away for OT, while the Department of Correction is currently $10 million below its $157 million allotment.
The DOC attributed the savings on its end in part to increased hiring, which means fewer officers are pulling extra shifts to cover schedule gaps.
“With more manpower, [there’s] less need for OT,” said one agency insider.
The de Blasio administration pushed back on the analysis, arguing that the state’s bean-counters, imposed in the aftermath of the city’s fiscal collapse in the 1970s, are not factoring in sizable state and federal grants that defray costs.
City Hall spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie noted that taxpayers’ direct outlay for uniformed cops has gone down in two straight fiscal years and that, once the grants are factored in, officials anticipate an excess overtime tab at the NYPD closer to only $7 million.
She added City Hall is working in lockstep with the NYPD and FDNY to make sure cops and firefighters can do their jobs without breaking the bank.
“We are constantly working with our first responders to monitor their overtime and ensure they have the resources they need to keep our city safe,” she said.
“We will continue to monitor as [we] head into the second half of the fiscal year.”
The board did not respond to repeated requests for comment.