Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On NY1’s “Mornings On 1”

January 17, 2024

Pat Kiernan: Time to talk about the budget. The mayor proposed a 109 billion dollar city budget yesterday, which includes, thanks to some found revenue, restoring some of the funding that would have been cut from the NYPD, the Fire and Sanitation Departments and restoring some of the funding to city libraries.

They said that they were able to cut some costs on housing migrants and find some other resources elsewhere. The mayor made it clear yesterday that the migrant crisis has been a real drain on resources.

[Video plays.]

Mayor Eric Adams: We balanced the budget without unduly burdening New Yorkers with tax hikes or massive service reductions; and, without laying off a single city worker. But we're not out of the woods.

[Video ends.]

As I mentioned, I got some of the budget documents here, this is just small portion of what the mayor's budget office released yesterday. Mayor Adams is with me now. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Good morning. Good to see you this morning and speak with you.

Kiernan: I have a lot of questions about the asylum seekers and the costs there, but I want to set that aside and talk about all of the regular services that New York expects from city government. It's been a real process over the past few months trying to understand where there could be cuts that didn't have a big impact on services— sanitation, parks, police, fire, the libraries, water, sewer. What has your budget team been most focused on in this process?

Mayor Adams: I have been extremely clear: we are focused on people, public spaces and public safety. That's the foundation of the budget. And when you look at some of the restorations, it zeroes in on those young people, it zeroes in on keeping our streets clean with public spaces, and it zeros in on public safety, which is a prerequisite— I state over and over again— of our prosperity, being safe in this city.

And we identified the problem in November. There was a projection of having over 100,000 people in our shelter care. That number ballooned to 168,000. But we knew we had to do a fiscal [that was] responsible and we had to move people out of the system, and that's what we were able to accomplish.

Kiernan: It's really easy to criticize one part of the budget: "why is the mayor cutting this," the reality is, you have to look at it holistically. Tell me about that process where ultimately you can't spend a dollar here and also spend it there, you've got to make a decision at some point.

Mayor Adams: You know, I wish, I should take you on the road with me.

Kiernan: Oh, no, no. No… [Laughter.] I don't think that would go well.

Mayor Adams: Because it's clear when you look at it, there is not one delivery of service that one would say, okay, cut here. No one raises their hands and say, let's cut. When you have to look at public safety, libraries, sanitation, schools, all of these issues, you have to focus and say, what are your priorities?

And that's what we did by saying, people, public spaces and public safety. We started from there, and then we looked at where we can trim down and find efficiencies. Remember, I started doing PEGs—, which is the efficiency reductions— from day one that I came into office. It set us up, the bond raters gave us an increase in our bonds because of our management.

And it was a right decision, because we did not know we were going to be dealing with this crisis in migrants and asylum seekers.

Kiernan: Okay. You don't have to name names here, but when you sit down with each of the city agencies, 

is there passion in terms of those agency heads trying to defend their spending?

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt, and the reason is, many of the commissioners are not just placed on top of agencies, this is their life work. You know, if you're in ACS, you spent your life protecting children, Chancellor Banks [was] an educator for years.

So, when you start talking about having to find these cost efficiencies due to a price tag that we did not create such as the national crisis of a migrant crisis, it really impacts on my commissioners. There have been some watery eyes, there's been some real just trauma of seeing that your life work is being impacted at this level.

We managed this crisis by identifying the problem in November, and we effectively put in place a plan; and because of that, we were able to do some restoration. But we're not out of the woods. We're far from being out of the woods, because thousands of migrants and asylum seekers are still coming to the city. The calvary was not coming right away, and we had to take action.

Kiernan: We've talked a lot about the spending programs. I do want to talk about the revenue side because that's half of this. One of the numbers that really goes up and down is real estate taxes, and there was a sobering chart in your budget presentation.

In 2019, just over 10 percent of commercial space in the city was vacant. You can see through the pandemic that ballooned up to about 20 percent vacancy rate. That's barely expected to improve as we look at for the next five years. Does the city just have to wait that out before we start to see some of that tax revenue coming back?

Mayor Adams: No, we cannot do that. Our working habits have changed and we are at a different place post-pandemic: 138 million square feet of real estate is vacant. We must pivot and shift to a new mindset, the way we did after September 11th when we saw vacant space in lower Manhattan. We made it a live/work community. We have to do that now. We need help from Albany, to allow us to convert those office spaces into affordable housing.

So, here's a call for more affordable housing. Here's the space to do it. We have to think differently about using available spaces throughout the business district. We cannot just sit back and allow this to naturally happen. People are not no longer going to office spaces, smaller spaces, remote work. It's just a different climate post Covid.

Kiernan: You had a number of doom and gloom budget forecasts in the fall trying to manage expectations here with cuts on the way. The City Council said at that time that you were underestimating the revenue, and now your team has agreed that there's a little bit more revenue to go around. It's been…

It's been confusing as to how severe the cuts are going to be. I want to read the statement that the Working Families Party put out yesterday. They said setting your own house on fire and then putting it out doesn't make you a hero. Did you sound the alarm too quickly on this budget?

Mayor Adams: No, and listen, we're going to always have people that's going to criticize us. That's the life in New York City. I think the hero[s] are those two officers who were shot yesterday that's protecting the city. I know who [are] heroes. They don't wear capes, they wear public service uniforms every day protecting us.

My role is to make sure those heroes are receiving the resources they deserve. 8.3 million people in the city, people are going to critique you. We see the entire picture. We are aware of the crises that we are facing, but we know we must come with real smart fiscal management to keep our bond rating steady and to be able to keep the lights on.

The money coming in must match the money going out, and we have done that and we identified that problem in November, and because of that we are able to continue to navigate us out of this crisis. And we will do that.

Kiernan: There's already been posturing from the City Council side. Do you think it'll be a tough negotiation to ultimately get the final budget deal?

Mayor Adams: It's just, it's always tough. Every mayor before me and I'm sure every mayor in the future of the city is going to negotiate with the council. I think Councilwoman Speaker Adrienne Adams understands what we are facing. She has issues that are important to us. We're going to sit down at the table as we showed her the preliminary budget yesterday, and we're going to come to a conclusion.

The law requires us to balance the budget and we're going to balance that budget to get us through this very difficult time.

Kiernan: Mayor Adams, if I can leave the budget topic for one final question. The federal monitor for Riker's Island said yesterday that the City Council has got the wrong idea in this ban on solitary confinement— or, punitive segregation, as it's called. You had made that argument as well. What's the significance now of the monitor taking that position?

Mayor Adams: Well, when I look at this entire issue it's clear what the City Council was attempting to do, we're just making a mistake in how we're doing it. We don't, first of all, we don't have solitary confinement in New York since 2019, we have punitive segregation.

And all I'm saying to the council and others, everyone has stated we need to be listening to the federal monitor. Well, let's listen to the federal monitor. We have come too far to decrease violence to go backwards. You cannot transport prisoners without having them handcuffed inside a vehicle. We wouldn't do that to cops, we shouldn't do it to correction officers.

And you can't have people who exhibit violence like the individual who stabbed two people in Grand Central put them in general population. He stabbed someone while he's in general population and allow him to stay in that population. This is unsafe for inmates and it's unsafe for employees. It's just not the right thing to do. Let's listen to the federal monitor.

Mayor Adams: Mayor Adams, I noted in the list of donors to your legal defense fund former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Were you surprised to get that donation?

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. You know, the former mayor knows the challenges that comes with running a city of this size. And when you're looking at a large legal bill, I was just really pleased how many New Yorkers stated that we've known Eric for years, his life as a police officer, a state senator, a borough president and the role I'm doing here of really turning the city around.

It's hard to believe, but it's been two years. In two years, crime is down, jobs are up, tourism is back. Our reading scores in our educational system has outpaced the state. There's real victories here, and that optimism is going to be returned in the City of New York.

And I want to thank him for his contributions and those other New Yorkers who stated that we believe this mayor has been a good, true public servant. And I'm going to continue to do that.

Kiernan: Glad to spend some time with you this morning, Mayor Adams. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.