City Council Floats Its Own Budget Ideas to Counter Eric Adams’ Cuts

The leadership of the City Council is crafting an alternative to the budget cuts announced by Mayor Eric Adams that potentially includes using the city’s robust financial reserves to stave off immediate cutbacks and asking Albany for tax increases next year to bolster the budget.

In media interviews since the mayor announced his plan to cut the city budget — to deal with the costs of the asylum seekers and looming deficits, he says — finance committee chair Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) has called for using the reserves, contending that tax revenues will exceed the administration’s forecasts.

He also has said the Council is preparing a package of “revenue raisers,” among them tax increases that require approval from state lawmakers. Revisiting tax breaks and collecting unpaid fines and fees are also under consideration.

The Council will not raise property taxes, he has promised, which is the only tax action the city can take on its own without approval from the legislature and governor. Layoffs of city workers are also not going to be considered, Brannan said.

The clash between the mayor and the Council is likely to be in the spotlight Dec. 11 when the Council holds a hearing on the mayor’s most recent budget plan.

Like Adams, Brannan has called for more funding from Albany and Washington to deal with migrant shelter and other costs, now estimated by the mayor at $11 billion for this year and next. He also says the administration should end emergency contracts and find more cost-effective ways to deal with the surge of new arrivals seeking aid.

But Brannan as well as city Comptroller Brad Lander and most fiscal experts say the mayor’s exclusive focus on the asylum costs ignores other maneuvers that have created the city’s budget crisis.

Federal COVID relief money…