Mayor Eric Adams speaks at a news conference on Wednesday. Jeenah Moon
Even before the migrant crisis, New York City was headed for fiscal disaster. The question now is: What to do to keep the city afloat without hurting Gotham long-term?
As we’ve noted, cutting cops — as Mayor Adams’ November financial plan calls for — would only drive up crime and fuel the exodus of people whose taxes are vital to fiscal solvency.
Adams knows this: City Hall’s memo ordering a January round of 5% cuts exempts the NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation, out of “concern for public safety, health and cleanliness.”
Yet at $107 billion, the budget is teeming with fat that can be cut without driving away Gotham’s tax base:
- Start by rolling back the vast sums being spent on migrants (five to 10 times per-capita than in other US cities), much of it thanks to the city’s impractical right-to-shelter consent decree.
Good news: Adams wants his team to slash at least $2.1 billion in outlays for migrant housing and services. It’s a start.
- Schools: There’s no reason why New Yorkers must spend twice as much per student as the rest of America, especially given the mediocre results.
Adams can fight the teachers unions and cut school spending — or set the city on a course for ’70s-style bankruptcy risks.
(Gov. Hochul says she’ll look for state funds to help the city. But the state’s broke, too. Why not demand lawmakers rescind their mandate — passed at the teacher union’s behest — to cap class size, thus forcing the city to hire more teachers, even though enrollment has fallen?)
- Work concessions from city unions. City Hall wrapped up deals that call for generous wage hikes but got no productivity increases, or relief from costly work rules, in return.
Union members, after all, also live and work in the city; they can make their fair share of sacrifices by agreeing to work-rule changes to avoid Armageddon.
- The city could save billions by trimming retiree health benefits.
- Kill the plan to tear down Rikers jails and build a new one in each of four boroughs, as Nicole Gelinas suggests.
- The Citizens Budget Commission has pointed to hundreds of millions more in savings opportunities: consolidate union welfare-benefit funds, capitalize on the glut of office space, increase job flexibility and more.
- Millions in City Council pork spending is begging to be slashed.
Progressives will instead push for yet another tax hike (a “Biden Migrant Tax”?). Yet the city can only raise property taxes, and those are still higher than before Mayor Michael Bloomberg hiked them after the 9/11 “emergency.”
Cutting waste sooner would’ve left the city in far better shape to handle unexpected budget busters, like the migrant wave.
Now Adams has no choice; he must start undoing the damage — but by making the right cuts, not ones that will hurt the city more.
News Related
-
The government does not permit listing the FODMAP content on labels. Getty Images/iStockphoto My first Stossel TV fellow, Trevor Kraus, initiated this column. Our video version is called “Freshly Cooked Censorship: Why You Can’t Put ‘Low FODMAP’ on Food Labels.” Kraus reports that rigid government rules prevent food producers from ...
See Details:
Federal censors: No telling health truths we can’t bother to approve
-
Pro-Palestinian protestors glued their hands to the middle of 6th Avenue and covered themselves in fake blood during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday. Ron Adar / M10s / MEGA The Issue: Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupting New York City’s annual Thanksgiving tradition. The pro-Palestine demonstrators went so low as to stage ...
See Details:
Macy’s Parade Protests and more: Letters to the Editor — Nov. 25, 2023
-
Palestinian prisoners (wearing grey jumpers) that were released from the Israeli Ofer military facility in exchange for hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza, wave flags and chant slogans as they are paraded in Baytunia in the occupied West Bank on November 24, 2023. AFP via Getty Images Hamas’ first hostage ...
See Details:
First hostage release brings fresh proof that Hamas must be destroyed
-
-
Rashida Tlaib speaks during a news conference calling for a cease-fire in November. AFP via Getty Images The Issue: Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s remarks criticizing Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is a deplorable human being (“Expel Rashida Tlaib,” Editorial, Nov. 19). The opinions ...
See Details:
Tlaib’s anti-Israel hostility: Letters to the Editor — Nov. 24, 2023
-
-
This Thanksgiving, Americans will spend a wonderful day at home filled with good food and probably some football. Adobe Stock This Thanksgiving, Americans will spend a wonderful day at home filled with good food and probably some football, partaking in a uniquely American tradition that has been with our nation ...
See Details:
This Thanksgiving, remember what makes America strong: Our people and our families
-
-
Republicans in Congress need to pressure Democrats to cut government spending after agreeing to a short-term federal-funding bill, according to Post columnist Cal Thomas. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib Congress just passed — and President Biden just signed — the latest short-term federal-funding bill to keep the government running. The bill, which ...
See Details:
New York is now the ‘least free’ state, thanks to Democratic policies
-
Republicans in Congress need to pressure Democrats to cut government spending after agreeing to a short-term federal-funding bill, according to Post columnist Cal Thomas. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib Congress just passed — and President Biden just signed — the latest short-term federal-funding bill to keep the government running. The bill, which ...
See Details:
AI and more drive soaring US technophobia — Congress, corporations must act
-
Republicans in Congress need to pressure Democrats to cut government spending after agreeing to a short-term federal-funding bill, according to Post columnist Cal Thomas. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib Congress just passed — and President Biden just signed — the latest short-term federal-funding bill to keep the government running. The bill, which ...
See Details:
‘Safe-injection’ sites actually do no good at all
-
Republicans in Congress need to pressure Democrats to cut government spending after agreeing to a short-term federal-funding bill, according to Post columnist Cal Thomas. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib Congress just passed — and President Biden just signed — the latest short-term federal-funding bill to keep the government running. The bill, which ...
See Details:
Obama’s false equivalence on Hamas is outrageous — and adds pressure on Israel
-
OTHER NEWS
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo could consider a mayoral run if Mayor Eric Adams is forced out due to an FBI probe. Gregory P. Mango A smart guy who pays close ...
Read more »
The migrant crisis has taken it’s toll on NYC and it’s coffers. ZUMAPRESS.com The Issue: Resources in New York City and the state going toward housing migrants. President Biden’s open-border ...
Read more »
Fight Voter Fraud, Inc. appeared in Connecticut Superior Court to demand the arrest of a woman allegedly caught on video stuffing ballot boxes in the 2019 Bridgeport Democratic mayoral primary. ...
Read more »
Lenue Moore was indicted Tuesday in the Sept. 29 murders of Jackie Billini and Levaughn Harvin, plus the killing of Billini’s dog Zeus. WABC In yet another textbook case of ...
Read more »
Americans can learn a lot from the story of the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, according to Post columnist Rich Lowry. Burstein Collection/CORBIS The Pilgrims were, to use the hostile ...
Read more »
Elon Musk is suing Media Matters, claiming it fabricated appearances of pro-Nazi content near ads from major companies. via REUTERS Elon Musk just opened a new front in the war ...
Read more »
Relatives and friends of 84-year-old Israeli hostage Ditza Heiman at a protest in Tel Aviv demanding that Hamas release all hostages on Nov. 22, 2023. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via ...
Read more »