New York City’s police officers will see their overtime hours slashed—despite a rise in crime—as the city reels from the “staggering” financial cost of the illegal immigration crisis that continues to grip the Big Apple.
Jacques Jiha, budget director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, on Sept. 9 dispatched a memo to the city’s four uniformed agencies—police, fire, sanitation, and corrections—asking them for plans to cut their overtime costs.
He said that New York City Mayor Eric Adams—who recently warned that the influx of illegal immigrants would “destroy” the city—would soon issue a formal order implementing the overtime cuts.
“The mayor will ... issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city’s four uniformed agencies (NYPD, FDNY, DOC/DSNY),” Mr. Jiha said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Epoch Times.
“These agencies must submit a plan to reduce year-to-year OT spending,” Mr. Jiha continued, adding that the overtime hour cut is but one of several measures being adopted to balance the city’s budget as it strains under the financial cost of the illegal immigration crisis.
To date, New York City has taken in more than 110,000 asylum-seekers since the beginning of the crisis, with nearly 60,000 currently remaining in the city’s care.
“We are a city of immigrants, and we will always welcome people from around the world in search of a better life, but the financial cost of the current crisis is staggering and not sustainable,” Mr. Jiha said.
Mr. Jiha said that the city has spent $1.45 billion in the 2023 fiscal year alone on food, shelter, and services, adding that the city projects that spending will top $12 billion over the next three fiscal years.
He said that the amount of federal aid has been “grossly inadequate” and that New York can “no longer continue to shoulder these skyrocketing costs and balance the budget without making very difficult choices,” which includes the NYPD overtime pullback.
Patrick Hendry, who heads New York City’s largest police union, objected to the city’s plans to cut NYPD overtime to help pay for the illegal immigration crisis.
Slashing Costs
Besides overtime hours being slashed, New York City is also implementing a 5 percent across-the-board budget cut, dubbed Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), which will affect all city agencies.The city also is adopting a full hiring freeze, with exceptions for critical positions that support public health, public safety, and revenue generation, Mr. Jiha wrote. But even when it comes to these critical positions, agencies will only be able to hire on a one-for-one basis, meaning one hire for one individual who has left the job.
A spending freeze on other-than-personnel services (OTPS) will also be implemented, which will include most out-of-town travel, all use of temporary service contracts, and all consultant contracts.
Mayor Announces Budget Cuts
Mr. Jiha’s cost-cutting request on Sept. 9 follows a call by Mr. Adams for the city’s agencies to submit plans to cut their city-funded spending by 5 percent over the next three budgeting periods.Mr. Adams on Sept. 9 cited “the convergence of circumstances threatening New York City’s financial stability” for the steps his administration is taking to balance the city’s budget, as required by law.
“Because the city has been forced to bear most costs of the asylum-seeker humanitarian crisis at a time when revenue growth is slowing and COVID-19 stimulus funding is sunsetting, the city faces substantial fiscal disruption if circumstances do not change,” his office stated.
Specifically, his administration is “asking all of our agencies to submit a plan to reduce their city-funded spending in each year of our financial plan by 5 percent for our upcoming November budget update; by another 5 percent in January’s preliminary budget; and by a final 5 percent in April’s executive budget,” Mr. Adams said in a video address to New Yorkers on Sept. 9.
About 10,000 illegal immigrants seeking asylum are “still arriving each month,” which puts the estimated costs for taxpayers at “$12 billion over three fiscal years,” his office stated.
“This means that, without additional state and federal support, the city will need to add another $7 billion to the financial plan over this year and the next to meet rapidly expanding needs,” it stated.
Republicans have blamed New York’s illegal immigrant crisis on the Biden administration for its apparent unwillingness to secure the southern U.S. border with Mexico. More than 5.6 million migrants have illegally crossed the southern border since President Joe Biden took office.
