Mayor Adams says NYC needs $1B from state for migrant costs

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to provide the city with more than $1 billion to help fill a looming budget shortfall in the city’s program for housing asylum-seekers and other migrants.

Armed with an oversized, smoothie-filled water bottle and a handful of his top aides, Adams fielded questions from legislators for more than three hours at a state budget hearing in Albany about how Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $252 billion state budget proposal would affect the city and other local governments.

The governor’s plan includes more than $25 billion in total aid for the five boroughs — including its sprawling school system — but would require the city to put an additional $165 million toward the state-run MTA’s costs for transporting the elderly and disabled. It did not include additional funds to assist the city in accommodating recently arrived migrants.

“Without your help, we will have to close a $1.1 billion budget shortfall for this program within 12 weeks and ask for the state’s assistance to do so,” the mayor told lawmakers.

Throughout Adams’ testimony, lawmakers peppered him with questions about the city’s ongoing care for about 46,000 migrants.

It was all part of the annual state budget hearing, not-so-affectionately known as “Tin Cup Day” in Albany, where mayors and municipal officials from across the state are invited to make their case for their priorities — and often end up begging lawmakers for more state funds.

In Adams’ case, part of his pitch mirrored his testimony from the prior two years, when he pleaded with lawmakers to cover some of the city’s costs for housing asylum-seekers and other migrants who were arriving in the city by the thousands.

On Tuesday, he said the city has spent about $6.9 billion caring for migrants over the last three years. The state has previously chipped in $2.4 billion. But that money is running dry, he said, and it will be difficult for the city to keep covering the tab.

Adams’ $114.5 billion city budget proposal relies on an additional $1 billion from the state for migrant costs, according to city budget director Jacques Jiha.

“While we appreciate the contributions the state has made, we urge you to include asylum seeker funding for the city in the state enacted budget,” Adams said.

The migrant funding was part of Adams’ relatively small wish list this year for Albany policymakers, whom mayors often ask to green light city-level initiatives that require state approval.

His other requests included approval for his “Axe the Tax” plan to halt the city’s income tax for people who claim dependents and earn income that’s less than 150% of the federal poverty level, as well as changes to the state’s criminal discovery and involuntary commitment laws — all of which have general support from Hochul.

Adams’ testimony came as legal, political and personal clouds still hang over him and his administration. The mayor remains under indictment on federal bribery and corruption charges, though the New York Times has reported that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has met with Manhattan federal prosecutors to discuss dropping the case.

Speaking to reporters following his testimony, Adams directed questions about his case to his attorney and insisted the charges aren’t a distraction. “I’m not distracted, I’m focused,” Adams said.

Adams is up for re-election this year and faces already crowded Democratic primary field.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the mayor faced back-to-back questioning from two of his Democratic mayoral challengers: state Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, both of Queens.

Ramos pressed the mayor on potential cuts to early childhood education spending and when the city would distribute money from settlements with opioid manufacturers. Mamdani honed in on the Adams’ administration’s decision to end leases for five child care centers — first reported by Gothamist — that sent parents scrambling to secure care.

In both cases, Adams used the clock to his advantage. Rank-and-file lawmakers were each given three minutes to question the mayor; when the clock ran out, Adams simply stopped talking.

“How convenient,” Ramos said as a bell sounded while Adams was mid-sentence.

Another one of Adams' primary opponents, city Comptroller Brad Lander, was scheduled to testify later in the afternoon. Prior to his testimony, Lander told Gothamist that Adams should have done more to focus on potential federal funding cuts now that Trump is back in the White House.

Lander is calling for the creation of a state-city task force to focus on federal cuts.

“That's a grave budget risk,” he said. “We're very vulnerable to the cut off of federal funds.”

Adams’ robust smoothie, meanwhile, had its own star turn.

While the bottle was prominently placed on the table in front of Adams, a sergeant-at-arms briefly whispered something to the mayor.

“You don’t like my water bottle?” the mayor said with a laugh. He moved it out of view.