Adams and Hochul are still friends, but they don’t see eye to eye on finances

Mayor Adams savagely rejected several of Gov. Hole’s budget proposals on Wednesday, but both he and the governor said they remain sympathetic despite their financial differences.

Adams testified before a joint committee of state senators and members of the Assembly in Albany on what is known as Tin Cup Day, when local leaders communicate their needs to state legislators.

Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul

During his testimony, he called some of Hole’s budget changes unfair, stating that her offer to help the city with the migrant crisis did not materialize, and her demand that the city allocate $500 million a year to the MTA would further complicate the city’s finances.

“While the executive budget contains many overall priorities, the cuts and changes in spending far outweigh the aid that the state has provided,” Adams said. “If action is not taken, these cuts will force us to make difficult choices about the city’s budget and the services we provide.”

In his testimony, Adams elaborated on Hohul’s plan to receive $500 million a year from the city to help the financially struggling MTA, saying that the transit authority should develop a savings plan and the state should seek help from other municipal governments.

The mayor and his top budget adviser, Jacques Jiha, also argued that the amount of money Houkul is offering the city to address the migrant crisis is not enough, given the city’s low expectations for more aid from the federal government and the fact that migrants have led to the city’s homeless population doubled in a year.

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

“In a Republican-led House of Representatives, it is unlikely that we will get anything from the federal government,” he said. “From our point of view, if you want to share the costs, at least they should be at least 50/50.”

Hohula’s executive spending plan aims to cut the city’s support for Medicaid by curtailing federal funding that was previously directed to local governments, another stumbling block for the mayor.

“This will be $343 million of our budget starting in fiscal year 2024, ending a long-standing cost-sharing arrangement,” Adams said. “It would effectively shift spending from state to local, reversing one of the most important Medicaid reforms in recent history.”

However, Adams took on a softer tone when asked by reporters about the increased burden Hochul is seeking to place on the city.

“If you look at what she has budgeted, a lot of it is my suggestions and the things I asked for,” he said. “We disagree on fiscal aspects… [but] this does not deprive us of our friendship and my respect for her and the ability to work with her.”

When asked about the mayor’s testimony, Hochul sidestepped their differences by noting that they mostly agree 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 get asylum status, and then you have to wait the same to be able to legally work in this country. It does not make sense”.

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