NYC Cancels Some Budget Cuts

By Hamodia Staff

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday that he was cancelling the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Executive Budget Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) for city agencies. That program was aimed at stabilizing the budget, but was now deemed unnecessary due to better-than-expected economic performance in 2023 through an upward revision to the city’s tax revenue forecast, and additional cuts to asylum seeker spending.

The Adams administration will be cutting an additional 10 percent in budgeted city-funded asylum seeker costs on top of the successful 20 percent asylum seeker PEG in the Preliminary Budget, which has already saved more than $1.7 billion in city spending.

In addition, the administration is moving from a near full hiring freeze to a 2-for-1 model and easing other than personal spending (OTPS) freeze restrictions.

Moody’s Investors Service, the independent credit rating agency, affirmed New York City’s better rating and praised the Adams administration for its “robust financial management” and the successful “implementation of budget measures to help close budget gaps…caused by the migrant crisis.”

“Our administration came into office with a mission to protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make our city more livable for everyday New Yorkers,” said Mayor Adams. “After two years of hard work, we are heading in the right direction: Jobs are up, crime is down, tourists are back, and we are delivering for working-class New Yorkers every day.

Adams said that despite a multi-billion-dollar budget gap created by the crisis of asylum seekers, and the sunsetting of COVID-19 federal stimulus funding, the combination of our financial management decisions, cutting asylum seeker spending by billions of dollars, and better-than-expected economic performance in 2023 is allowing the city to cancel the spending cuts and lift the freezes on city hiring.