Mayor Eric Adams presents proposed budget for the fiscal year with focus on asylum seekers

Mayor Eric Adams presented his proposal for the fiscal year with spending controls as a backdrop and with the message of the increasing cost of responding to the constant arrival of asylum seekers in the city.

There are almost 107 billion dollars for the year 2024, in which education, health and social services programs are prioritized. Adams put the projected spending on services for asylum seekers at $4.3 billion for this next period.

According to his figures, the city currently serves more than 35,000 people in this situation,

New York’s immigrant coalition reacted to this point by saying the mayor is sowing division among New Yorkers and blaming his administration’s tax blunders on asylum seekers.

For its part, the organization Make the Road New York demands that the budget take more account of the working class:

“What we want is for him to govern for the working class of New York, for the people most in need, for those who really need those funds,” said Natalia Aristizabal, deputy director of Make the Road New York.

“And we also know from reports from the city controller that New York City does have the money, not only to help the people who are arriving, but to be able to provide for the people who have been here for a long time,” he added. Aristizabal.

Adams noted that the budget reflects continued support for shelter and high school mental health services and child care programs.

He also stressed that there will be no cuts to public libraries, a controversial point in his preliminary budget that put fundamental services for the community at risk.

But some councilors have received the financial plan with skepticism.

“We are facing budget cuts. Cuts with libraries, 3K, with all the public services that New Yorkers depend on and with the reason for those cuts being the immigrants that are coming here, but there is a fundamental contradiction that we see as a city council, which is that for the number of immigrants, the mayor is proposing cuts to the services that immigrants depend on,” said Queens Councilor Shekar Krishnan.

The mayor now has to negotiate with the City Council to reach an agreement before the July 1 deadline.