Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Facing uncertainty from Albany, Mayor Adams orders another round of budget cuts
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Apr 4, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Apr 4, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Mayor Eric Adams is once again ordering New York City agencies to cut their budgets in the coming years, marking one of several belt-tightening measures under Adams that have drawn criticism for their impact on critical services from public schools to libraries.
The latest round of cuts, first reported by the Daily News, come one day after the City Council issued a rebuke of the mayor’s nearly $103 billion proposed budget for failing to invest in key programs for the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmember Justin Brannan, who chairs the finance committee, described the mayor’s plan in a statement as “a demonstration in excess that risks taking the city down a harmful, destabilizing path.”
Most city agencies must submit to 4% cuts in fiscal year 2024 and future years, according to a letter from Jacques Jiha, the city's budget director, that sent to agency heads on Tuesday.
The two exceptions — the city's education department and CUNY — will be subject to a 3% cut “to minimize disruption to schools and classrooms,” Jiha wrote.
Agency heads were further instructed to avoid layoffs and “avoid meaningfully impacting services where possible.”
The city is facing several financial headwinds that include the ongoing migrant crisis and having to negotiate new contracts with nearly all of the municipal unions. The outcome of the pending state budget may also require the city to take on significant costs, from funding the MTA to Medicaid.
“While we continue to have positive conversations with our partners in Albany, we face a perfect storm of factors,” Jonah Allon, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “At the same time, we are facing a slowdown in city tax revenue growth and what is predicted by financial experts to be a weakening of the nation’s economy.”
Tuesday’s order marks the third cut made under the so-called Program to Eliminate the Gap, a commonly used budgetary tool.
Adams called for a 3% spending reduction when he took office last January. Then in September, he called for 3% cuts in the current fiscal year and 4.75% cuts between fiscal years 2024 and 2026.
Following that, city agencies were asked to save money by sharply reducing the number of vacant civilian positions.
City agencies are being asked to report on their progress with meeting their cost-cutting mandates, though not all agencies have met their benchmarks yet, according to Allon.
Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, praised Adams for making another cut, calling the action “timely, if not overdue.”
He estimates that the city faces a budget shortfall of more than $6 billion in 2027.
City Comptroller Brad Lander joined the Council in pushing back on the mayor’s approach, calling the cuts “a blunt approach that cuts arbitrarily rather than plans strategically for the future.”
Invoking the city’s ongoing staffing crisis, he added, “These broad cuts will hit agencies that already faced large and arbitrary headcount reductions imposed by City Hall earlier this year.”
Tagged
budget
Asylum Seekers
Politics
eric adams
news
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .