Eric has ‘respect’ for gov amid rift

Mayor hits Hochul on funds for migrants & MTA in her budget plan

Mayor Adams said Wednesday in session at Capitol that the city would face “difficult choices” if forced to pay $500 million to shore up the MTA, and warned that proposed help in Gov. Hochul’s budget for dealing with migrant crisis falls short.

Mayor Adams pushed back hard on several of Gov. Hochul’s budget proposals Wednesday, but both he and the governor said they continue to remain simpatico despite their fiscal differences.

Adams was testifying before a joint committee of state senators and Assembly members in Albany on what’s known as Tin Cup Day, when local leaders make their needs known to state lawmakers.

During his testimony, he called some of Hochul’s budget moves unfair, saying her offer of aid for the city’s migrant crisis fell short and her demand that the city kick in $500 million a year for the MTA would further strain the city’s finances.

“While the executive budget contains many shared priorities, the cuts and cost shifts significantly outweigh the assistance the state has provided,” Adams said. “If unaddressed, these cuts will force us to make difficult choices in regard to the city budget and the services we provide.”

As part of his testimony, Adams homed in on Hochul’s plan to take $500 million a year from the city to help the financially ailing MTA, saying the transit administration should institute a savings plan and the state should hit up other municipal governments for help.

The mayor and his chief budget adviser, Jacques Jiha, also argued the amount of money Hochul is offering the city for its handling of the migrant crisis isn’t enough — given the city’s low expectations of additional help from the federal government and the fact that migrants have caused the city’s homeless population to double in a year’s time.

Jiha said Hochul’s proposal to contribute a third of the funding for the migrant crisis is unrealistic, given that her plan assumes another third of the funding would come from the federal government and the remainder would be paid by the city.

“In the Republican-led House, it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to get anything from the federal government,” he said. “From our perspective, if you want to split the costs, at least it should be at the minimum 50-50.”

Hochul’s executive spending plan aims to cut Medicaid support to the city by holding back federal funding that previously went to local governments — another sticking point for the mayor.

“That will be $343 million taken out of our budget beginning in fiscal year 2024, which would end a longstanding cost-sharing agreement,” Adams said. “This would effectively transfer costs from the state to localities — undoing one of the more important Medicaid reforms in recent history.”

Adams, though, took a gentler tone when asked by reporters about the increased burdens Hochul aims to put on the city.

“When you look at what she has placed in the budget, many of them are my proposals and things that I asked for,” he said. “We disagree on the fiscal aspects ... [but] it does not take away our friendship and my respect for her and ability to work with her.”

When asked about the mayor’s testimony, Hochul sidestepped their differences, noting they’re largely in agreement when it comes to public safety and some aspects of the migrant issue.

“We want to get earlier work permits for them,” she said of the migrants. “You still have to wait 180 days after you receive your asylum status to then have to wait that long to be able to have a legal job in this country. That doesn’t make sense.”