Eric Adams rolls out fiscal 2023 budget, claims NYC will save $2 billion

Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday unveiled his $98.5 billion preliminary budget for fiscal 2023 — which includes a slight shrinkage of already massive city spending by $200 million that he claimed will result in more than $2 billion in savings.

During a speech from City Hall, Adams decried “decades of inefficiency and wasteful spending” in the past and bragged that he’d “taken the very first steps to turn this city around” with his first budget proposal.
“Fiscal discipline will be a hallmark of my administration,” he said.

The plan would trim the NYPD budget by nearly $30 million, to about $5.41 billion, amid an ongoing surge in brazen retail thefts, shootings and homicides, including last month’s ambush murders of two cops in Harlem.

In a Q&A session with reporters, Adams, a former NYPD captain, said the proposed 0.6 percent cut kept police funding “basically flat.”

“There may be a slight decrease in the next few months, but it’s basically going to be flat,” he said.

“I’m not going to do anything that’s going to get in the way of keeping New Yorkers safe.”

Adams repeated his vow to increase efficiency by putting hundreds of cops with desk jobs back on the street to fight crime.

“Every man and woman must be on deck with the mission of the Police Department,” he said.

“I’m not going to taxpayers and saying ‘Let’s spend more of your money’ when I’m not doing a good job in the agency with what they gave us already.”

Following the redeployment, Adams said, “we will make the analysis if we have to put more in.”

Adams also said that hospital beds for psychiatric patients that were being filled COVID-19 patients would revert back to their original purpose and would aid in the treatment of mentally ill homeless people.

“We’re ending the era of tents. We’re ending the era of sleeping on our subway system with all your belongings. That era has ended,” he said.

Adams’ plan also includes cutting the Department of Education’s budget by more than $826 million, or 2.6 percent, to about $30.7 billion.

Reduced enrollment in the nation’s largest school system and the elimination of more than 3,200 open jobs will account for about $375 million in savings, City Hall said.

Another $405 million of the cut came from the expiration of the retroactive pay requirements under the city’s agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, City Hall said.

Funding of city schools is directly tied to enrollment and the Big Apple has lost about 9 percent of students in kindergarten through 12th grade over the past two years, according to state figures.

Adams said he expected some families with school-age kids that fled the city due to the pandemic would return if he can bring down crime.

“We believe we’re going to get the enrollments up,” he said. “If we ensure the city is safe, you’re going to see a massive return to the city.”

Following the release of Hizzoner’s plan, the DOE said it would earmark $240 million in federal stimulus funds to help administrators cover costs during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.

“This investment will provide continued stability as schools adjust to enrollment changes,” the DOE said in a statement.

Other cuts are planned for the Department of Health and the public NYC Health + Hospitals system, even though Adams had said they would be exempt from his “Program to Eliminate the Gap,” which calls for 3 percent cuts to most city agencies.

Adams credited that program with generating nearly $2 billion in savings contained in his budget proposal, which he also said would provide the city with $6.1 billion in reserves, the largest in history.

“This is the result of effective planning and judicious management, and New Yorkers can be confident that we have the resources for recovery, as well as for any uncertainties that may lie ahead of us,” he said.

Although overall spending is barely below the $98.7 billion budget deal that former Mayor Bill de Blasio struck with the City Council last year, Adams said his plan would cut spending by $2.3 billion.

That claim is based on official projections in November that expenditures during the 2023 fiscal year would hit $100.8 billion.

The last time annual city spending actually declined was in fiscal 2009, according to information compiled by the Independent Budget Office.

The president of the Citizens Budget Commission, Andrew Rein, said Adams’ spending plan “proposes important, welcome, and refreshing initial steps in the right direction.”

But in a prepared statement. Rein added: “Many more steps should be taken in the Executive and Adopted Budgets to address the city and federal fiscal cliffs, restructure to make government more efficient, and save for the inevitable next downturn.”