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Adams’ budget cuts are hurting services, says comptroller [1]
['Curtis Brodner']
Date: 2022-12-09 20:59:12.329000+00:00
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Libraries, universal preschool, supportive housing, NYCHA, a program to divert mental health 911 calls to social workers instead of cops and youth programs all face cuts under Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to eliminate city debt, according to a report released Thursday by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.
The report was submitted to the City Council ahead of a hearing on Friday for the November 2022 Financial Plan Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG).
A version of the PEG was included as part of Adams’ budget that the City Council passed in June, and the impacts can already be felt across the city. The Council will vote on changes to the budget later this month.
The Comptroller’s Office found the PEG resulted in cuts to crucial services, exacerbated widespread staffing shortages and often obfuscated the scope of cuts.
Amid a housing crisis, housing services are particularly hard hit by the PEG, according to the report.
As part of the cuts to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city’s supportive housing program is suffering. Funds routed through HPD for NYCHA are also getting slashed despite the public housing authority’s desperate need for repairs.
Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, the chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, did not respond to 1010 WINS' requests for comment on cuts to housing.
As part of the PEG, the Department of Education is backtracking on prior commitments to the city’s public preschool program Universal 3-K. The program’s budget will drop $284 million starting in the 2024 fiscal year.
Councilmember Rita Joseph, the chair of the Committee on Education, did not respond to 1010 WINS' request for comment on cuts to 3-K.
Lander anticipates the 3% budget cut for libraries will impact services, though the public library system has not yet announced which initiatives will get the axe. Libraries handle a broad array of services, like passport applications, financial literacy courses, resources for immigrants and former convicts, and research assistance.
Councilmember Chi Ossé, the chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations, declined to comment on the potential disruption of library services.
The Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) will lose $12.2 million this fiscal year as two different agencies look to offload the burden of the cuts onto the program.
B-HEARD, a program to reroute 911 calls about mental health crises to mental health experts instead of police, was started in June 2021 in response to protests against police violence and a string of incidents in which the NYPD killed people during mental health episodes.
Mayor Eric Adams touted a $55 million expansion to the program in April.
“Not every emergency call needs the police,” he said at the time. “B-HEARD teams deescalate tense situations and connect people in crises to the care they need.”
Now, the FDNY and Health + Hospitals are each slashing their contributions to the program.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a long-time supporter of B-HEARD, did not respond to requests for comment on the cuts.
“Fiscal discipline has been, and continues to be, a hallmark of our administration," a spokesperson for the mayor's office told 1010 WINS. "The city faces significant economic headwinds that pose real threats to our fiscal stability, including growing pension contributions, expiring labor contracts, and rising health care expenses — and we are taking decisive actions to meet those challenges. We have achieved significant savings without service reductions or layoffs. We are also investing in new needs that will address our housing crisis, make our streets cleaner, combat climate change, and much more.”
As part of the PEG, Adams ordered every city department except uniformed agencies and the Department of Education refrain from filling vacant positions, a policy which has led to a city-wide staffing shortage.
In November, the Adams administration ordered departments reduce the city’s roughly 21,000 vacancies by cutting half of all vacant positions — reducing the vacancy rate by doing away with jobs.
“[The Office of Management and Budget’s] recent vacancy reduction letter calls for a broad 50% reduction in civilian headcount across most of the City’s agencies,” said Lander in his report. “We urge caution in applying such a blunt instrument to the positions that keep the City functioning.”
The Parks Department is slated for the largest reduction of any city agency at about 200 positions, according to the comptroller.
These cuts threaten to calcify dysfunction at Parks and other departments.
“Staffing shortages have made it more difficult in my work to try and cover all the many things we need to do in a day,” a Parks Department employee told 1010 WINS. “Just wearing more hats than were described during the hiring interview. Doing things that are outside of your scope of duty.”
The shortages have already led to a cessation in services for the public, according to the employee, who remains anonymous because staff are not permitted to speak with the press.
“I experience it through members of the public approaching me about things like, ‘this bathroom has been locked down or completely out of order for months now and it seems like nobodies fixing it,’” he said. “People complain about trash in the parks, water not being upkept. Mostly just through parks being in disrepair, especially Parks buildings not being maintained.”
On top of the lack of staff, yearly budget battles threaten the job stability of existing workers and hurt morale.
“The funding is dependent on City Council members renewing grants and whatnot. A lot of these people that are working now could potentially be out of a job when the next city budget is decided,” said the employee. “If I’m not even guaranteed a job through the next two years, why should I care about this job?”
Some of the savings Adams attributed to personnel cuts aren’t attached to any specific positions marked for destruction in the mayor’s plan.
Lander said it’s unclear where these savings are coming from or whether they could indicate further position eliminations that have not been announced.
These unaccounted savings represent $468.6 million over the course of the next four years.
There are other discrepancies in the PEG that raise questions about whether the program can meet its goals even at the cost of crucial services and jobs.
The PEG estimates overtime reductions, efficiency plans and staffing changes at the Fire, Sanitation and Correction Departments will save the city $56.5 million in 2023 and $89.1 million in 2024.
But these figures are entirely offset by other parts of the financial plan which raise the budget for the agencies, so they should not constitute savings, according to Lander.
This discrepancy is indicative of a broader lack of transparency that makes it difficult to estimate the cost in services, programs and jobs of the PEG, according to the Comptroller’s Office.
“We urge the City to be more forthcoming with details that are essential to understanding the impact of these initiatives on services and to enable a system that provides ongoing monitoring of initiative efforts over time,” said Lander. “It is crucial that the program be evaluated, tracked, and monitored using a standard that allows the public to clearly see where cuts are being made, whether proposed cuts are achieved, and how cuts impact services.”
Lander also called on Adams to use other deficit reduction methods besides cutting funding for services or jobs.
He outlined potential fundraising methods like expense re-estimates, independent revenue boosting initiatives and debt service reduction as alternatives to cuts to crucial services.
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