Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Testimony Before New York State Senate Finance and New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committees

February 4, 2025

State Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow: New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee, today we begin the fourth in a series of hearings conducted by the joint fiscal committees of the legislature regarding the governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 25-26. The hearings are conducted pursuant to the New York State Constitution and the legislative law. Today the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee will hear testimony concerning the governor's proposed budget proposal for local governments. 

I'll now introduce participating members from the Assembly. After that, Senator Krueger will introduce members from the Senate. In addition, Ranking Ways and Means members with [Assemblymember] Ra will introduce members from his conference. We have with us today the chair of the Local Governments Committee, Billy Jones, Assemblyman Jones, the city's chair, Assemblyman Burke. Also we have with us Assemblypeople Shimsky, Wheeler, Taylor, Jacobson, Fall, Gonzalez-Rojas, Mamdani, Dais, Valdez, Braunstein, Seawright, Bichotte Hermelyn, Simon. And we have as observers, not to question, Assemblymembers Wright and Raga. Senator? 

State Senator Liz Krueger: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. So as always, we have committee meetings overlapping, so we may see senators and assemblymembers coming in and out throughout the day, and we will try to make sure to recognize them when they get here. 

Also, just because of the crowd interest with the first panel, we're asking any assemblymembers or senators who come in, stay on the Senate side or the Assembly side as appropriate. We have the Chair of Local Governments, Senator Martinez, the Chair of Cities One, we call that New York City. We have Senator Sepúlveda, Senator Persaud, Senator Hoylman-Sigal, Senator Liu, and my colleague, Tom O'Mara, who's the ranker on Finance, will introduce his members. 

[Crosstalk.]

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Good morning. On the Republican side of the aisle, we are joined by Senator Alexis Weik, ranking member on Local Governments, Senator Steve Chan, ranking member on Cities One, Senator Mark Walczyk, ranking member on Cities Two, and Senators Robert Rolison and George Borrello. Assemblyman Ra? 

State Assemblymember Edward P. Ra: Good morning. We have Assemblyman Ari Brown, who is our ranking member on Local Governments, Assemblymember Lester Chang, who is our ranking member on, we don't have Cities One and Two, we just have Cities, he's our ranker on Cities, and we have Assemblymembers Tannousis, Gallahan, and Brook-Krasny.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Okay, today looks like it will be a long day, so we have time limits in place, which will be strictly enforced. Time limits are, for witnesses: government witnesses get ten minutes to testify, non-governmental witnesses get three minutes. 

The chairs of the committees relevant to each governmental witness will get ten minutes for questions, and a second round of three minutes if desired. Ranking members of these committees will each get five minutes. All other members of the relevant committees will get three minutes and no follow-ups. 

To all witnesses, all written testimony has been submitted to the legislature in advance, so we ask that all witnesses please do not read your written testimony to us, instead please summarize. To all legislators, please let myself or Senator Krueger know if you wish to question each witness or panel of witnesses. After the open remarks of each witness or panel of witnesses have been concluded, the list will be closed. 

Everyone, witnesses and legislators, should locate a time clock, which are conveniently located throughout this room. Please note that when the clock winds down to zero, you will be alerted that your time is up, and I don't want to seem rude, but I will interrupt you. 

Please be considerate and respectful of the clock so that everyone has a chance to be heard. Please note that these timeframes for questioning include both questions and answers, so members are respectfully requested not to commence a question with insufficient time on the clock to permit the witness to answer. Due to the length of our hearings, we have no alternative but to strictly enforce these time limits. 

I should add that if any witness or later in the day that is not yet registered, please do so at the top of the stairs. I will now call the first witness, the Honorable Eric Adams, mayor of the City of New York. Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much and [inaudible]. And to the city’s chairs, Sepúlveda and Burke, local government chairs, Martinez and Jones, and members of the assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. My name is Eric Adams, I am the mayor of the City of New York. And I am proud to be here today with my team, Jacques Jiha, director of our Office of Management and Budget, First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Intergovernmental Affairs Tiffany Raspberry, and former state senator and senior advisor to the mayor, Diane Savino. 

Since day one, we've been clear in this administration, our mission has been to make New York City a safer, more affordable city that is the best place to raise a family. While we have to do more, we have made significant progress. Crime is down on our streets and in the subways, and in 2024, homicides and shootings reduced for the third consecutive year, and are both down double digits since we came into office. And once more, our January crime stats are now out, and for the second month in a row, overall crime in our city is down by double digits. 

Last month, crime was down 17 percent above ground and 36 percent below ground. Shootings were also down 22 percent last month, continuing the steady decrease we've seen, and we've removed over 20,000 illegal guns off our streets. We currently have an all-time high number of jobs in our city, and broke the record for the most jobs in New York City's history, eight times over the course of our administration. And this is important. Unemployment has dropped among all demographics in general, but specifically Black and Brown unemployment has dropped close to 20 percent. These achievements would not be possible without our strong fiscal management. 

We have delivered three balanced budgets. The nation's leading independent credit rating agencies have affirmed our strong fiscal standing, and our most recent preliminary budget includes the largest ever capital plan for housing, infrastructure, schools, libraries, and more. 

Last year, we worked closely with you and the governor to make progress on every single one of the legislative priorities together. We passed historic legislation that protects tenants and gives our city new tools to build the affordable housing needed to take on a generational housing crisis. We won mayoral accountability for the second time, and we gave legal authority to close illegal cannabis shops. The power you gave us allowed us to close 1,300 illegal shops, and we're watching the legal industry profit. 

We passed legislation on red light cameras and e-bikes to keep our streets safe. We removed over 80,000 illegal vehicles off our streets. And all this builds on our past work in the partnership to expand the earned income tax credit for the first time in 20 years, allocate aid to the unprecedented international humanitarian crisis we face together, and so much more. That is why I'm here today, to talk about our shared priorities and how we work with the lawmakers to once again deliver for working class people. 

We're seeking support in four key areas. First, passage of our Axe the Tax for the Working Class legislation to make life more affordable for working class New Yorkers. Second, passage of the Supportive Interventions Act to finally allow people with severe mental illness to get the lasting support they need. And third, passage of measures, reforms to the discovery law that will continue to protect offenders' rights while improving the efficiency of our criminal justice system. We know how important it is, and we want to continue to do so. 

We also did something significant in the city, in our City of Yes for Housing plan. The most significant pro-housing reform in our city's history. We want to continue to move forward and continue to expand and grow in this area. Something that the first deputy mayor has been clear on breaking record after record, year after year, on building affordable housing. And with the help of Governor Hochul and the state's support, City of Yes will invest five billion dollars. These investments combined with our generational zoning reforms will create over 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years across every neighborhood in the five boroughs. 

Working class New Yorkers must be able to afford grocery, medicine, transportation and other necessities. Every penny counts for our families, and that's why we're proud that we put $30 billion back into the pockets of working class people. For the next three years, we will cancel over two billion dollars in medical debt for over half a million of our city residents. But there's much more to do, and much more we can build on, and that's why today I'm asking you to join us in the Axe the Tax for the Working Class. Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Senator Leroy Comrie sponsored these bills. 

This is significant for New Yorkers, and at the moment, when our states face a historic affordability crisis, this plan will benefit $350, putting a total of 63 million dollars back into the pockets of 582,000 filers and dependents. 

As I said over and over again, public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity. We are providing even more support for New Yorkers living on the streets and in the subways, including those struggling with serious mental illness and those at risk of entering city shelters through a historic $650 million plan. We are adding 900 more safe haven beds and 100 runaway homeless youth beds to protect our most vulnerable. We are launching our Bridge to Home program, an innovative model to provide homeless New Yorkers with serious mental illness the intensive support they need. 

Our administration has already helped 2,800 people from streets and subways to permanent housing, and our partnership with SCOUT and PATH put clinicians with law enforcement officers to continue that success. This is why we're really calling on you to enact the Supportive Interventions Act, which clarifies that a person requires hospitalization if mental illness is preventing them from meeting their basic human needs of food, clothing, shelter, or medical need. It also will help ensure people remain hospitalized until they are truly ready for discharge. We are grateful for the governor's embrace of many of these proposals and look forward to working with you to pass meaningful reforms this year. 

Next, we also must do more to ensure repeated offenders are truly held accountable. Well-meaning criminal justice reform has led to an unintended consequence, and this includes dismissal of cases due to minor violations. We need your help in this area as the five district attorneys have joined us in this initiative. 

Finally, as I have said many times, no city should have to shoulder the cost of an international humanitarian crisis on its own. Our fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget is balanced and includes $2.4 billion in savings in this fiscal year and the next related to the decline in migrant arrivals over the past 31 weeks. This trend is due to the steps we have taken to put more than 184,000 migrants on the path to self-sufficiency, but we need help. 

We spent close to $7 billion to care for immigrants and migrants over just three fiscal years and anticipate spending billions more in the years to come. While we appreciate the contributions the state has made, we know we need– we have a gap of $1.1 billion budget shortfall from this program within 12 weeks we must fill. This is on top of the cost of complying with the New York State budget provision that will cost New York City taxpayers $165 million more annually if TA needs and $347 million from lower than expected foundation aid. 

We have high hopes for the year to come. We're looking forward to working with you as we fight to make New York City a safer, more affordable city, and the best place to live and raise a family for generations to come. I look forward to your questions as we go into the needs of the city. Thank you very much.

State Assemblymember Billy Jones: Good morning, Mr. Mayor... Last year, New York State budget, we budgeted $2.3 billion for the migrant crisis, as you just mentioned. My questions are pretty simple. How much of that money has been spent? How was it spent, programs, et cetera? And what is the amount left over and how will that be spent?

Mayor Adams: Jacques, the budget director that would give you the exact numbers, but the spending went to all means of care. When a migrant asylum seeker came into the city, we had to pay for housing, educating the children, clothing, cleaning, security, all the things that an adult would need. And what we have done as the costs have come in, we have to return the seats to the state to be reimbursed for the dollars that we spent and how much we are spending. Jacques, can you go over the exact numbers?

Jacques Jiha, Director, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget: Thus far, we spent over $7 billion. As you know, the grants that we get from the state is a reimbursable grant, so we spend first, we advance the resources, and we get the reimbursement from the state. Thus far, we have claimed about a billion dollars and we have another claim for another $750 million–

State Assemblymember Jones: I'm sorry, you've spent a billion dollars of the $2.3 billion?

Jiha: No, we claimed. We have received a billion dollars from the state so far. We put in a claim for $750 [million] and we're still working with the state to process all the rest of the claims.

State Assemblymember Jones: So that $2.3 billion that was allocated hasn't been spent down yet?

Jiha: Every single dollar has been allocated. 

State Assemblymember Jones: Every single dollar has been allocated? 

Jiha: Every single dollar has been allocated. The issue is reimbursement, how much we're getting back from the state. We received, so far, a billion, we put in a claim for another $750 million, and we're putting claims for the rest of the resources.

State Assemblymember Jones: So you're waiting for the reimbursement from the state to spend down the extra money, the $2.3 billion? 

Jiha: Yes. 

State Assemblymember Jones: It will be all allocated and spent out?

Mayor Adams: And assemblyman, we still have 46,000 still in our care, and we have successfully moved over 180,000 out of the care, and we've successfully brought down the cost of the migrant asylum seeker crisis from our 30 and 60-day program to move people on to the next step.

State Assemblymember Jones: Is this, is this contracted out? How is it actually spent? How is it through the programs? You mentioned a few of the programs, but how is the money actually spent? Do we contract that out with groups to spend it? How does that work?

Mayor Adams: Combination, everything from housing to utilizing the small hotel spaces to building out Randall's Island, to building out Floyd Bennett Field, to building out Creedmoor, placing the tents up in a place, paying for food, paying for services. All the services that you could think of, and from a combination of city employees to contracts out to individuals.

State Assemblymember Jones: How much would you say is out, contracted out, out of that $2.3 billion? 

Jiha: Most of it is contracted out. 

State Assemblymember Jones: And how many migrants do you have in your care from when you started to now?

Mayor Adams: We've had a total of 220,000 that have gone through our system. Now we're down to 46,000. At one time, we had a height of approximately 97,000 at any given time. We were experiencing anywhere from 4,000 a week, 8,000 every two weeks, 16,000 a month that we had to cycle through the system. And we had, we got a lot of pushback when we said we were going to limit to 30 and 60 days, but people did not come here to live in a shelter. They came here to take the next step on the, on the journey and we moved forward regardless of that pushback.

State Assemblymember Jones: Okay. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you very much. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Just for everyone on the panel, your testimony is getting printed. So you're sitting there going, why don't we have the mayor's testimony? It's coming. So I just want to let everybody know that. And our first speaker, excuse me, our first questioner will be Chair Martinez. Ten minutes. 

[Crosstalk.]

State Senator Luis Sepúlveda: Good morning. I'm going to sound like a broken record because I've asked this the same thing for two straight years. From 2007 to 2013, the Office of State Control received approximately 41 percent of unrestricted state aid, which is known as revenue sharing or AIM. In 2006, New York City received $328 million in AIM funding. In his infinite wisdom, Cuomo removed New York from AIM funding in 2011. 

If New York City had insisted on returning that funding in the last 14 years, New York would have received about $4.6 billion in funding. In the last three years, over $1.2 billion in AIM funding. Myself and my predecessor in the committee, Senator Jackson, have been fighting a quixotic battle to get New York City involved for this AIM funding. And we have gotten— we have not been able to work with the city to restore this funding. 

When we ask the administration and leadership about it, they say, the city is not pushing hard enough for it. So how do we get a commitment from the city to get a funding, AIM funding, which would probably be in excess of $300 million, which you can use for a lot of things, I'm sure, in the city. But we can't get the city committed to helping us get that funding for them.

Mayor Adams: You were right last year, Senator, and you're right this year. And I'm not quite sure why they're feeling that we're not pushing hard enough for it, because we believe it is important to get it. And we would like to join you and the colleagues up here, particularly those who represent New York City, to assist us in pushing for that money. And you're right. We need every dollar that we can to continue to deal with the crises that are in front of us.

Jacques, do you want to talk about any of this in particular? 

Jiha: Like the mayor said, we would be very happy to work with you. We'll be very happy to work with you, to make sure that we get this aid. Diana and I were just talking about it this morning. That is how critical we believe it will be for the city.

State Senator Sepúlveda: I've heard, you know, I've had this discussion before, and I've gotten commitments about it, and I don't know if you can sense the frustration I have, because there's a lot of money we can give to the city for a lot of programs, and I'm not getting the kind of cooperation that I think we should be getting, so that we can make the city have even more funding to pay for some of these programs. 

So later on, you can tell me someone I can speak with. I mean, Diane's been great, Tiffany's been great, but I need to get a real strong commitment so that I can get more money for the city.

Mayor Adams: Help me define that for me a little, senator. When you say strong commitment, and you're not getting the cooperation, help me understand that.

State Senator Sepúlveda: Well, someone who will reach out to me with the administration, someone who will call my office and say, look, let's work on this AIM funding, I haven't gotten anything like that.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Well, I'll do that. I'm the somebody. You know, the buck stops with me, and if you're stating that you're not getting the cooperation you deserve, next week, we will hop on a Zoom with the team, and I want to get some specificity on what you need to show that we are engaged. So it's going to start with me, and I will make sure we do the follow-up with the team. I'm responsible for making sure you get what you need so you can deliver for the city.

State Senator Sepúlveda: I appreciate that, mayor, and I will be reaching out to make sure that we can make this happen because it's money that we can use in the city. The other issue I have, and I've spoken to your staff about it, and again, to Diane, Tiffany, and some of your other staff members about the issue of the property tax reforms in New York City. 

The plan that the city came up with and we worked on was going to benefit about 70 percent of New York City residents. The other 30 percent will give them an opportunity to opt in slowly to the plan so that they don't get this large bill. But 70 percent of New York City residents are paying or subsidizing property taxes for the richest people in New York City. And the system that your administration's plan came to me a couple months ago was great, but we can't get anyone to follow through. I shouldn't say that. 

We're not getting this done at the rate that I think we should get it done so that more people in New York City can benefit from a fair property tax system. And again, I need your commitment to make sure that we can work this through because it'll be a great cost saving measure for people in New York City who shouldn't be paying as much in property taxes as other more affluent neighborhoods.

Mayor Adams: And as you know, there's a court case that's currently underway as well, and I'm glad you pulled back on that follow through because we have been really banging our heads against the wall to fix a broken property tax system that has been disproportionately impacting particularly communities of color. And I happen to be one of them living in Bed Stuy. I know that I'm paying a disproportionate amount of property tax. Both Diane and Deputy Mayor Raspberry, they have been on top of this issue. We're going to present our proposal as well to find a way how do we don't overburden communities and further exacerbate this problem. Tiffany, you want to follow up on that?

Deputy Mayor Tiffany Raspberry, Intergovernmental Affairs: Thank you. We'll be following up with your office in the coming weeks with our updated proposal and legislative language that you can advance here.

State Senator Sepúlveda: That's all we ask for.

Mayor Adams: 40 years, senator. We've been fighting this fight. 40 years. And everyone kicked the can down the road. They said, let's wait until Eric becomes the mayor so we can fix it.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: And we've been joined by Assemblymember Davila and Colton, Assemblymember.

State Assemblymember Patrick Burke: Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, mayor. So I'm the new chair of Cities. I come from Buffalo. I'm a proud Buffalonian. So I'm getting my head around all these New York City-based issues. I've had the pleasure of meeting several members of your leadership team, very bright and capable people. So I'm looking forward to continuing those conversations. 

I have a few questions, again, as I sort of come in contact with these concepts in New York City. I want to talk about TFA, progressive design, and joint bidding. So the TFA, last year, I think you went up for $14 billion. Now the new request is $3 billion. It's a pretty dramatic increase, and now we're going to be at $30.5 billion. That's double from what it was. Can you explain why the city needs this?

Jiha: The city needs it because the governor is asking for the city to cooperate to provide the resources to the MTA. This is our contribution. The capacity that you gave us last year was all used because we had to make a commitment for class size, for jails, and for the BQE. So all of the resources that were granted to us last year was fully utilized. 

So therefore, this year, as part of our contribution to the MTA, the state is asking us to give $3 billion, but at the same time, they also know we don't have the capacity to fund it. So therefore, they're giving us the capacity to issue $3 billion more in debt, TFA debt. 

State Assemblymember Burke: So this $3 billion, this is just for the MTA? 

Jiha: It's going to the MTA.

Mayor Adams: It's coming in and out. And then, you know, when you think about it, assemblyman, we have a mandate by the City Council by 2027 to close Rikers Island. It started out costing us $8 billion to close it. It has now ballooned to close to $16 billion to close it, to build four jails that can't house the current population that we have. And so we are dealing with some real capital issues. And as the director stated, $3 billion came in, but $3 billion is going out to the MTA.

State Assemblymember Burke: I'd like to follow up on that Rikers Island conversation at a different time, just if you could make a note of it. 

I'd like to jump to progressive design. So we haven't finished fully implementing progressive design now. What is, you know, the driver in expanding it before the process has had a chance to complete?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Thank you, Assemblyman Burke. If you recall, last year, at our request, the legislature expanded the progressive design bill for the City of New York. In this budget process, the governor said that she wanted to expand it statewide to all state agencies, as well as expanding it to other city agencies. But, I'm looking around here. I think maybe myself, Senator Parker, Senator Krueger, and at the time, former Senator Adams, we were here when the progressive design bill was born in the legislature. It was an opportunity to increase efficiency, bring projects sooner to completion, and drive down the cost. And it's been incredibly successful, and this was an opportunity to first expand it to other city agencies, and now to the rest of the state.

State Assemblymember Burke: Okay. Alright. Good. So, and then lastly, I want to talk about joint bidding–

First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer: Assemblyman, if I could just add, we also already compiled some data on what some of those early successes are, with the additional flexibility that we have for delivering capital projects. And already we're seeing savings, we're seeing the limiting of change orders, we're seeing dollar savings, not just time savings, but dollar savings in the area of about 10 percent for the projects. So we'd be happy, for projects, we'd be happy to follow up with that data, but this, any additional flexibility in more tools to deliver our capital projects means that for critical projects, whether it's energy retrofitting for our city buildings, or the types of projects to improve public housing, and many others that we're able to build more quickly and more efficiently for New Yorkers.

State Assemblymember Burke: Good. Thank you. On joint bidding, I've had more joint bidding conversations than I ever thought or wanted to have in the last couple of weeks. Where is it? Are all parties at the table? And, you know, obviously I hope everyone's negotiating in good faith, but again, as a Buffalo guy dealing with joint bidding, you know, it seems to be something that continuously comes up. Where are we?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: I'd be happy to follow up with that. As you know, assemblymember, when we open up the streets, we see a lot of things, and there are a lot of owners, and a lot of jurisdictional issues, so joint bidding in general allows us to operate in a more coordinated fashion in order to get the projects done. 

Specifically, in response to your question, yes, we are in constant conversation with all of the many stakeholders, contractors, labor, and utilities on an improved proposal following last year's extender, and we certainly want to continue that to ensure that any additional improvements that need to be made, we're implementing properly.

State Assemblymember Burke: Good. Thank you. Lastly, I want to follow up on Chair Jones' discussion on migrants. This has certainly affected my area in western New York. You know, we've had our own issues, but it's sourced from New York, so New York City to the Buffalo area. 

Can you just take me through the process, because it's been such an issue? My understanding is that most of this was, some of it at least, was sort of a callous political machination, you know, sending folks from Florida, from Texas to New York City. I'm just curious, you had this influx of migrants. How were they getting there? You know, was it based on New York City's right to house, and how did you deal with that?

Mayor Adams: Well, the influx was coming through buses, through planes. 

State Assemblymember Burke: But buses from where? Like, what was the genesis of it?

Mayor Adams: From Texas, but they were also coming from other areas as well. They were coming through planes, through our airports. There were federally sponsored programs when the federal government was doing the same, and so there was an accumulation. 

All roads were leading to New York City and New York State, and we had an obligation to make sure that no child or family was sleeping on the streets, and we fulfilled that obligation. It was an unbelievable burden that we received from the federal government. It cost us, as I stated, close to $7 billion. They gave us roughly $200 million allocated for it, but New Yorkers had to step up and fulfill the obligation.

State Assemblymember Burke: Okay. I look forward to working with you all in the future. I'm continuing to work with you, and I would entreat you to come to Buffalo sometime. We'll host you at a Bills game, the only NFL team in the state of New York.

State Senator Monica Martinez: Good morning, mayor. I just have one question. In the executive budget, there is a proposal to increase the TFA by $3 billion. This is the New York City transitional funding. It should be– usually, it's a temporary funding that you get for bonding, but there's an additional $3 billion in this year's budget. One, my question is, why the reoccurring? And is this $3 billion connected to any MTA capital projects? 

Jiha: That's the MTA capital project, yes. All $3 billion will go to the MTA. 

State Senator Martinez: Thank you. That's it from me, chair.

State Assemblymember Lester Chang: Good to see you. I represent South Brooklyn. Of course, you represent the borough of Brooklyn, where you were borough president and senator. We both know the borough very well. Both of us have lived in New York City for a long time.

Mayor Adams: And thank you for your military service.

State Assemblymember Chang: Well, thank you, sir, and your service in uniform as a transit police, too. Both of us served two decades. This is going to be broad in New York. When you were campaigning as a mayor and you proposed to stop the mega jail in Chinatown, and, of course, now you're elected to office and you say you're unable to close it because of the City Council mandate. 

Now, right now it's stopped, making that mega jail, because all those costs ballooned up to $3.5 billion, that's what I'm hearing from the news report. Wouldn't it be better served is to be looking to have that mega jail going back to Rikers Island and then save that $3.5 billion? Or anything in our state legislature to do something about that to override the City Council mandate? 

Because, to me, it's a waste of money and it's a real estate property better served to use a senior housing or affordable housing in Chinatown area, which they desperately need. And a mega jail in that community, I don't think it's a well-thought-out avenue. And Rikers Island is a facility. All we have to do is repurpose it and make it better for these inmates and possibly as a homeless shelter as well.

Mayor Adams: Well, we sat down, assemblyman, with the City Council to point out how flawed this plan is. Four more jails in each borough, and it doesn't fit the current capacity of Rikers' population. Balloon costs to get it done. The 2027 date is not a realistic date. 51 percent of the inmates on Rikers Island are dealing with mental health issues. 20 percent are dealing with severe mental health issues. So to build smaller Rikers throughout the city and not fix the problem is a problem. Deputy Mayor Parker is presenting a real plan so that everyone can see how they must do a better job. 

Too many inmates at Rikers Island are sitting there not getting their court cases moved forward. There's a bottleneck in the system, and I don't think building four more smaller jails is going to solve the problem when it currently does not fit the current population and almost has doubled the cost. And this is in the power of the City Council, not the mayor. We have to abide by the law, and we have had continuous conversations with the City Council about this. 

I believe what we should be building is a state-of-the-art mental health facility to deal with that 51 percent so we can stop criminalizing mental health issues and start giving people the proper inpatient and outpatient care. But again, this is a City Council law. It's flawed. We have to follow the law.

State Assemblymember Chang: As you mentioned about this testimony, migrants has decreased coming into the city, and you've been closing down major shelters for the migrants itself, like closing down Floyd Bennett Field. And recently, I've been notified that you plan to put a homeless women's family shelter in Borough Park as well in the Bronx. So why are we adding that while you're closing down the migrant shelter? Wouldn't it be to stop closing down and just repurpose that?

Mayor Adams: You know, the one uniqueness that I found in government that I have not found one elected official that stated, please put the shelter here. No matter where we put the shelter, we get the same questions. When you look at places like the Bronx, we have over 30 shelters that are located, South Jamaica, Queens, and other facilities. There are some places in our city that many of you may represent that they have either one or two, in some cases, no shelter. And so it's not our desire to do that. 

As we deal with the population of migrants and asylum seekers that are here, we still have children and families who are in our shelter system that are longtime New Yorkers. And what we're finding that's even more fascinating, that a lot of the new arrivals in the city are coming from other parts of America. They're not even migrants and asylum seekers. We're finding that other Americans are coming to New York. Our incoming shelter population is increasing at an alarming rate. And so we have to find places to do shelter. And it's unfair when you have a Councilman Salamanca who has over 30 shelters, and then we have another community that may have one or two shelters. It's unfair, and we need to spread out the shelter crisis of long-term New Yorkers and migrants and asylum seekers.

State Assemblymember Chang: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you. Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. We have our new Senator Chan from Brooklyn, who is the ranker on Cities. 

State Senator Stephen Chan: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. It's a pleasure to see you over here. You and I were police officers right around the same time on the same job, although in different neighborhoods. I think we see a lot of the same things. So building on Assemblyman Chang's question, do you have an idea of what it costs to, let's say, service a homeless shelter per man per day on the average?

Mayor Adams: Do you have that number?

Jiha: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: It's a lot.

State Senator Chan: Yes. It's about $750, according to some of my own research in various databases. $750 per day, per man. That's $22,000 a month per person. So what if we give them $200 a day a month for a month? That comes out to about $6,000. I think that would solve their homeless issue, now, wouldn't it? 

So now, going back to the jails and the homeless and the migrants, right? I understand that nobody wants a shelter in their district, right? Now, I'm not talking about the district. Do you think, every day we see news stories about violent crimes in the subways, usually, a lot of times, perpetrated by homeless men. The female that was burned alive in the subway happened just a few blocks out of my district in Coney Island. 

What's the sense of reasoning in insisting on putting a homeless shelter within feet of a subway station? I'm talking about 20 feet. When I say feet, I mean 20 feet. I mean, that's like putting a liquor store next to a gun store next to a school. What's the sense of reasoning behind that? I'm not talking about the district. I'm talking about one particular location.

Mayor Adams: So let's look at that for a moment, because you made two important points. You were talking about the cost of housing someone, and that cost can actually put people into homes. That's why we passed the City of Yes, because every time you look to build affordable housing, the amount of pushback we get, everybody says housing is a right, but once you want to put it in the communities, not on my block. So when we passed City of Yes, it's building a little more housing in every neighborhood in the city, the most comprehensive housing plan in the history of the city. And so yes we want to move people out of homeless shelters and into permanent housing. We’ve done that. 

We moved people off our subway system, as you indicated, into permanent housing. We’ve built more affordable permanent housing in year one and two in single years in the history of this administration, in the history of the city. Moved more people out of homeless shelters into permanent housing in year one and year two in the history of the city. 

More people participating in FHEPs vouchers and the FHEPs vouchers program. So when you say why would you build it in transportation, that's one of the ideal places to build it, because many people who are in homeless shelters or many people who need housing don't need to have access to good quality transportation. That's why you want to pick an identification like that. And let me finally say this. 

I'm hearing all this about how dangerous our subway system is. That's not the reality. We have 4.6 million daily riders. An average of six felonies a day. Six felonies a day out of 4.6 million rioters. And so no, we don't want to see someone burned to death. No, we want to get rid of those six felonies. We don't want to rob you on our system. We got that. But we have failed in the perception issue. We have not failed in the criminal justice issue. These cops are working– 

State Senator Chan: I'm sorry to cut you off. I understand that right now you're converting a storage unit in the Bronx into a 2200-bed migrant shelter as you shut down other migrant shelters. Why wouldn't you convert that storage unit for shelter for our own people?

Mayor Adams: Well, we are, first of all, everyone in New York has the right to shelter. So it's not as though we are turning away long-time New Yorkers. We also have a shelter population of long-time New Yorkers. Everyone that requires shelter, is getting shelter. 

So what we have successfully done, we have successfully navigated 179,000 people on the migrant and asylum issue out of the system. We've closed down Floyd Bennett Field. We closed down Randall's Island to turn the park back over to the people. We're getting ready to close down more. We've closed down over 40-something shelters to address community concerns and needs.

State Senator Chan: So why are you trying to build a shelter 20 feet from a subway station where kids and women and our families and elderly travel to and from every day and jeopardizing the innocent victims of a lot of times the mentally ill, let's say. I'm not saying that we shouldn't help them.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator. Assemblyman Brown.

State Assemblymember Ari Brown: Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you? As I said last year, it's nice to see the second-best-dressed guy in the state here before us. I think we can agree that the first obligation of government is to protect its citizenry. I'd like to thank you for being one of those first responders, a former police officer. 

As a grandson of a former FDNY fire chief, as a father of a former volunteer fireman, I have to ask, regarding congestion pricing, why is it that our firefighters are not getting the exemption for this congestion pricing? These guys have to move their cars back and forth all day long to get from one firehouse to the other. What's your opinion on that? What can we do to rectify that injustice?

Mayor Adams: I think it starts up here. You know, I'm not the creator of the program. People stop me every day. And, you know, people don't know all their lawmakers, but they know their mayor. And I get an earful every day. Congestion pricing is managed by the MTA and the governor. They will make the determination. We put in for several waivers. We were able to secure $100 million for those areas that have an environmental impact. We were able to get waivers for those with disabilities. I would love to have a slew of waivers, not only for firefighters, but TA employees, for teachers, a whole host of people. But I don't make that decision, and I don't make that determination.

State Assemblymember Brown: Thank you, mayor. But we need your loud voice when it comes to this issue. I love our teachers. Two of my daughters are New York City public school teachers. 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry? 

State Assemblymember Brown: I said two of my children are New York City public school teachers. But there's a big difference when it comes to our people who are our first responders. Our firefighters need this exemption because if there's delays in getting to a fire because they're having to move their personal vehicles from place to place. Your voice should be louder, if I may suggest, and stronger. Whether you have control, don't have control, it would make a big difference. And I ask you to do that.

Mayor Adams: Well, there's a technical aspect that the president of the UFA brought to my attention because they have some type of permission of moving their vehicles. And I think there's a cost-saving measure by allowing them to do that aspect of it. We're going to sit down, we're going to explore it, and we're going to see how we can carry it out. It seems as though there's some type of agreement that firefighters are able to move within the command, that it saves us money if we don't have to buy vans, if we don't have to carry that out. We're going to sit down and see how we can go about implementing it.

State Assemblymember Brown: I appreciate your answer, Mr. Mayor. I think we're kind of mixing up two different things. These firefighters are actually having to pay out of pocket for congestion pricing to move their vehicles throughout the day. It's causing big delays. I think we're mixing up two different issues.

Mayor Adams: I don't disagree, but I agree with you on that. And as I stated, the UFA president, one of the firefighters union, stopped me. We engaged in a preliminary conversation. I'm looking forward to sitting down and hearing the exact rationale. But, you know, once you start opening the door of waivers, you know, police officers are first responders also. Our EMTs, there's a whole host of first responders. But we're going to do everything we can to advocate for those waivers when they are appropriate.

State Assemblymember Brown: Easy solution, just get rid of congestion pricing. Totally inappropriate, especially for us here in local government and suburbanites.

Mayor Adams: The birth came from up here. The birth didn't come from City Hall. That's your baby.

State Assemblymember Brown: Mr. Mayor, I'm going to move on to bail reform for a moment. In the governor's State of the State address, she commented how recent changes in New York bail law have given judges more discretion, and there was no need to do any adjustments to the bail law. Your opinion, please. Working okay for us?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I think the advocates for understanding and making a fair bail system was a righteous fight. Now we should do an analysis to see what are the unintended consequences of that. And one of them is discovery. When I speak with my district attorneys, they tell us we need to have a close examination of discovery to make sure that we're not getting any unintended consequences. And I respect the DAs who are calling for that, and we need to reexamine that. And I thank the governor for looking at that reexamination.

State Assemblymember Brown: Right. But, again, in her speech, she actually said she didn't see a need to do any adjustments. And I think we've kind of examined this over the past few years. It's failed and failed miserably. I think it's about time we all get together and do the right thing and do this big adjustment to bail reform.

Mayor Adams: The number one issue for me that we're seeing when I speak with Commissioner Tisch and Chief Lipetri, who does our crime analysis, is that we are having a problem with habitual, violent, repeated offenders. When you have 570 people–

State Assemblymember Brown: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. Senator John Liu. 

State Senator John Liu: Thank you, madam chair. How [are] you doing, Mr. Mayor? I want to commend you first for bringing on some really great people, especially the fantabulous first deputy mayor that you have. So things are, you know, it's been difficult. I certainly understand that. But I think most of the city has been running pretty well. And, you know, you've got your own challenges. 

I think last week we spoke with Chancellor Aviles-Ramos and she did report a significant, what I consider a significant, decline in New York City public school attendance over the past few weeks. And my question to you is, do you think there's a particular reason for that? A significant decline over previous years in enrollment in public schools over the past few weeks?

Mayor Adams: Chancellor Banks said it best. And the current chancellor, who was his handpicked successor and someone that I work closely with, fully understands that our product must be an attractive product. It must be a place where our children are challenged. It must be a safe place. It must be a place where we are preparing them for the future. And I think there's a combination of things that may have led to the erosion in population. We are looking at that. The chancellor is looking at that and examining. But we have an obligation to go out and encourage parents to see that we have the best product. We have done that. Some of the things that we are continuing to do–

State Senator Liu: I don't think parents are worried that we don't have the best product. I think they're worried about other things. I think they're worried about keeping their families together. I think they're worried about possibly what might happen to their kids if they happen not to be home when their kids are supposed to be coming home. Do you think that's any kind of factor? Is that happening in the City of New York?

Mayor Adams: Well, we have been clear, and if you are alluding to migrants and asylum parents, if that's what you're alluding to. 

State Senator Liu: I am. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. If you're alluding to that, we've been clear that children should go to school. If you need medical care, you should go to the hospital. If you're the victim of a police interaction, you should call the police. We have been clear on that, and we will continue to take that stance.

State Senator Liu: I have reports that there are members of the NYPD asking parents and teachers for identification in front of public schools, particularly around dismissal time. Do you know of any such actions by the NYPD?

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, you know, I always say, where do all these rumors come from? You know, I wasn't–

State Senator Liu: No, they're not rumors. 

Mayor Adams: That's not happening. That's not happening. John, senator, let's be very clear. And if anyone is giving you a rumor or a lie that New York City police officers are participating in civil enforcement, that is a lie.

State Senator Liu: Okay, so you're very clear that no members of the NYPD would be asking parents and teachers for identification out of a general sense of duty?

Mayor Adams: That is not a general requirement–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator. Assemblyman Ra, five minutes.

Mayor Adams: Notice how disciplined I've been as soon as I hear that bell?

State Assemblymember Edward Ra: Mayor, good morning. So I wanted to ask about staffing in terms of corrections. You know, we know over the years, in recent years at least, my understanding is the numbers were down as much as 25 percent. Where is the current staffing levels in terms of corrections? Obviously having adequate staffing is safer for both the officers and those, you know, they're charged with the custody of.

Mayor Adams: First of all, we are at a critical stage in law enforcement in general, but specifically in the Department of Corrections. The challenge of filling a job, the challenge of giving people to come into the administration and the Department of Correction is that a code red. Many of the current correction officers are retiring and we're having challenges in filling those classes in the Department of Corrections.

State Assemblymember Ra: So are there initiatives that your administration is undertaking in terms of recruitment, in terms of retention?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Two years ago, we identified through the Department DCAS that we were not doing a very active recruitment plan on the thousands of jobs that we've had open. We made each agency identify a real recruitment plan, including the Department of Corrections, to go out and actively recruit. And we're also looking at some of the archaic civil service rules that allow people to have entry into these agencies. Some of the college requirements, some of the restrictions that are put in place, we're looking to analyze that to sort of incentivize people coming in and retention. 

One way of retention is with the president of the union. He'll tell you we gave a fair contract to make the job an attractive job, as well as the 97 other percent of contracts to be settled with civil employees.

Jiha: Also, mayor, in the general plan, we just added a lot of resources for a major campaign, an advertising campaign for them to recruit, to go around the city and recruit. So we added resources in the plan for that.

State Assemblymember Ra: And have you been able to compile any data as corrections in terms of bringing down– I know that there were a lot of triple tours being worked, things like that, that obviously nobody's at their best going through that. Have you been able to start to bring that down through staffing? Obviously, things go hand in hand, having an adequate number of corrections officers so that you don't have people working double and triple tours.

Mayor Adams: You're correct. And really, we treated our correction officers unfairly during COVID, not giving them masks. Many of them were doing triples, as you stated, just the tension of doing that. And we're really pleased with our current commissioner who's there. She has brought a real humane approach towards not only the correction officers but the inmates. 

And I'm proud to say I have been on Rikers Island more than any other mayor in the history of this city, speaking to the officers, speaking to the inmates, realizing how we can change that environment. She's decreased some of the violence on Rikers Island, and she has brought that humane approach to it and has brought down the level of overtime. But a lot of that overtime is due to the shortage of manpower that we have to improve the population in DOC.

State Assemblymember Ra: And then lastly, just in terms of some of the crime in the system, I know that there has been a problem with sexual assaults, in particular with female officers. I think we need to do our part in Albany, there's been this bill pending to increase the penalties. But with regard to that topic, anything going on internally to make sure we're protecting those officers from those types of assaults?

Mayor Adams: So important. We communicate with a group of correction officers who are the victims of those assaults, and it is imperative that we send a clear message. The district attorney of the Bronx, she has been clear. When you assault, either sexually or regular assault, she has been willing to recharge the inmate that's responsible. And that sends the right message, and we want to continue to make sure that's carried out.

State Assemblymember Ra: Thank you, mayor.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. I want the mic to work, sorry. We've been joined since the last time I made announcements by Senator Parker, Senator Jackson, Senator Sanders. But next up is Senator Borrello.

State Senator George Borrello: Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, mayor, for being here and your team. You mentioned that you have about 46,000 folks in your care, but you have 180,000 that you moved out. I'm assuming that those folks with your contractor, DocGo NYC, many of those folks moved upstate, including Western New York where I am. 

We found out at the end of last year, the end of 2024, that DocGo was canceling their contracts with Western New York organizations, not-for-profits like Jewish Family Services and Journey's End. And we were told that those families would be then moved back down to New York City, but there's been no confirmation. Can you speak to if those migrant families are being moved back to New York City?

Mayor Adams: A combination. There was a substantial number of people who moved upstate. They found their way. You have a beautiful place that people want to stay. They figured that New York City is not the only place to be. And we're receiving a smaller number of people who are coming back down to the city. Those who do, they don't come back into our care. They find their way. We do intense training. We give them information on how to survive in the city and the state, and many people have found their ways.

State Senator Borrello: But the funding is ending, so those folks are basically on their own. So you have 180,000 people that were sent largely upstate that are now fending for themselves, essentially, which is very troubling. So I'll ask you the same question I asked you last year at this event, at this hearing. Do you think it's time to end New York City's sanctuary policy? Last year, the answer was no. It's who we are. So after seeing the chaos and the expense and now the pain that has been spread throughout New York State, you think it's time to end sanctuary policies?

Mayor Adams: First, that large number, 180,000, did not go upstate. A small number went upstate–

State Senator Borrello: We still have them, you know, again, without funding, that was promised. So again, don't you think it's time for us to shut off that spigot and stop this humanitarian crisis, as you call it, from landing in New York State.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. First, we need to secure our borders. I've stated this over and over again, and we need to remove those who are committing violent acts in our city and our country. And I think people need to be clear on what the sanctuary city law is because sometimes people conflate it.

State Senator Borrello: The sanctuary city law is we will make sure that people who have committed crimes are not deported and that they're not handed over to ICE. That's essentially what I think most New Yorkers understand. That's the concern that I have. And I realize that the landscape has changed, and now we have the border being secured, which I think will reduce that flow. But ultimately, we still have a lot of people that are here. You know, I was told roughly 68,000 with criminal records here in New York State. We have to address that.

Mayor Adams: And the sanctuary city law, senator, is not what you just described. The sanctuary city law is exactly what one of your colleagues, I think John Liu, just talked about. If you are here paying your taxes, living your life here, based on those taxes you pay, you have a right to go to school–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Like that discipline?

State Assemblymember Pretlow: The next set of assemblymembers, at least, will be limited to three minutes. Please note, members, that this is a budget hearing, and please limit your questions to budgetary items. This is not a campaign. First, we have Assemblymember Bichotte Hermelyn

State Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. It's great to see you and the whole team here. Thank you. And I just want to quickly thank you and your team for your hard work with the City of New York, with the progress given that our New York City is overwhelmed with a lot, a lot of issues. And it's just really hard to fix something overnight that's been broken for many, many years and many, many decades. But we just want to thank you for that, and also with the public safety as top concern. By the way, good pick with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

We want to thank you for really addressing those issues around homelessness and keeping the crime rate down. And also, I want to thank you for partnering with Senator Comrie and I on the Axe the Tax as we focus on working class families and making sure that we're putting millions of dollars back into their pockets to serve their families. 

I do have three questions. And the first question is, you talked about the asylum seekers. You have about 47,000 in the system currently. And I guess over the course of the time, the number of asylum seekers have– the gap has decreased. My question to you is, how, where are you going to get the money? Like, how are you going to continue to support these migrants? I know you talked about the $2.3 billion, and I know there's some money still staggering. But will it be, will it take a new budget, or will you continue to support these migrants with the remaining budget that's there? So how does that work?

Mayor Adams: Well, we have a gap in our current system that we need to fill, in the current budget gap that we need to fill, a little over a billion dollars that needs to fill. And our goal is to continue our 30 and 60 day program so that we can decrease that number. And we're seeing a substantial decrease every day so that we can close these facilities and no longer have to pick up this financial burden. So this is a gap that we have, and that is our ask in Albany. What's the exact dollar amount?

Jiha: It's about $1 billion currently. We plan, we budgeted for about a billion dollars of state aid that we'll be receiving. But currently, the budget doesn't have any resources at all for these asylum seekers. So if we don't get resources from the state, we're going to have a hole of about a billion dollars that we have to backfill.

State Assemblymember Bichotte Hermelyn: Thank you.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you, Senator Kevin Parker.

State Senator Kevin Parker: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. And good morning to your illustrious staff, many of which I know well. A couple of things. First of which, in honor of Black History Month, we'd really love to hear about the work that you've done around MWBE and what impact that you think that's made economically, being that we're having an actual budget hearing. And what can we be doing better on the state level in order to advance the work that you're doing on MWBE? 

And then the second thing is, we've had a serious issue last budget in the context of illegal smoke shops in these cannabis legal places. Have we made any progress on that? And, again, what kind of things should we be doing in the context of our budget in order to help facilitate the proper implementation of our cannabis plan?

Mayor Adams: Well, first dealing with the MWBEs, what can you do? Listen to Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. She started out with half a million dollars in discretionary. She went up to a million, and now we're up to 1.5 million. What you guys have done around local hiring has been unbelievable. We're now having many of our city agencies look at some of the jobs and make sure you get local hiring. We watch our communities build up and the futures go down of those who are working there. And our numbers are unbelievable. 

Michael Garner, who's in charge– when you look at what we have done under Local Law 1, we are at 33 percent in the city. First time in history in the city around MWBEs. In fiscal year 24, the city awarded $6.4 billion to MWBE contracts and continue to make meaningful progress. And so we're seeing a real rethinking of how do we look at women and minority-owned businesses that can provide the services to the constituents that actually look like the diversity of this city. 

You had a second question? The cannabis. We came here and asked the state to help us go after those illegal cannabis shops. You did so, and the power you gave us allowed us to close over 1,100 illegal cannabis shops. And in the process, the legal cannabis business started doing better. And so because of the help and the partnership we've had here in Albany, we've been able to close those illegal shops. Those illegal shops were known for robberies, for violence, for quality of life issues. And because of the help from Albany, we were able to really rein in the problem.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, assemblymember. Before I go on, we've been joined by Assemblymembers Gibbs and Rajkumar. Assemblymember Taylor, three minutes.

State Assemblymember Al Taylor: Good morning, Mr. Mayor, and thank you so much for joining us today. Last year, we gave you a lot of support to help alleviate the housing crisis. So with respect to J-51, 485, I got three in there, right? How has that been beneficial, and where do you see the big hole? 

But before you answer that one, I want to lean over and look at the 145 project, because the 145 is stopped. I'm not sure if you're familiar with 145, and it's tall. And what we want to do is be able to make sure that it's affordable for the residents that are there. And what are some of the things that we can do in the City of Yes that will impact that with some of the other tools that we gave you in the war chest to make this possible? Because Harlem sits at 41 percent as of the last citing, so we're not even 50 percent of Black folks in Harlem. And I represent Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood, but we want to make sure those numbers are consistently going up for the working class people that are there and affordable. 

And the last one is the Mitchell-Lama piece. I'm just throwing it all in. I'm going to get out of here so you can answer, because you've been holding it. With the Mitchell-Lama, we need help in the biggest way, New York City housing. And you're familiar, you spend a lot of time at Esplanade Garden. They are in dire need of infrastructure and resources. How can we help you get that job done as a partnership?

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, Councilman Yusef Salaam has been a real partner in figuring out how we land a plane on 145th Street. But when we talk housing, it's hard to say without looking at what our first deputy mayor has accomplished. So you want to talk about some of this stuff? 

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yes, of course. We're extraordinarily grateful for the partnership of the State Legislature with the housing package from last year. And I want to assure everyone that we wasted no time in making sure that we were implementing each and every one of the tools that were authorized last year. 

So to your question specifically, for the 421-a registration, that entire implementation has been completed by HPD, and there are 21,000 units to be unlocked. For the 467-m program, that is fully operational. We've been already receiving applications, and about 500 units are on their way. For 485-x, we are starting to really see interest in that program increase, and we are earlier in that implementation process. But we expect that the market will also take hold, and we'll start seeing those programs move forward. 

For J51, HPD is working very feverishly on making all of the application materials available. We recently were able to get the home rule and work on the home rule with the City Council. So that's needed to move it forward. All of these tools, assemblymember, are critical to ensuring that we have the financing that we need. And then when you combine that with lifting of all of the zoning barriers– we make more housing. Thank you.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. Senator Jessica Ramos.

State Senator Jessica Ramos: Good morning. Thanks for being here.

Mayor Adams: Good morning, thank you. 

State Senator Ramos: Your preliminary budget includes a $300 million cut to early childhood education. Your own EDC estimates that New York City loses $23 billion in lost tax revenue and productivity due to the child care crisis. How does this cut aid our shared goal of improving affordability?

Mayor Adams: When you look at the early childhood initiative, really got to examine what we accomplished. For the first time in the history of this city, 150,000 children were able to get spaces. And as I lived up to my commitment, every child that needed a seat will get access to a seat. We fulfilled that. That record number is clear. We have also reduced the cost of child care from $55–

State Senator Ramos: Actually, parents are really, really worried about the early childhood education seats that have disappeared. And on top of that, the city has chosen not to renew leases for some child care centers in Brooklyn and one in Queens. So I'm not sure how that correlates with what your intentions are.

Mayor Adams: As I was stating, we dropped the cost of child care from $55 a week to less than $5 a week. And what's another number that's very impressive is giving access to it. Before the pandemic in 2019, we had 14,000 applicants. Under this administration, 43,000–

State Senator Ramos: That is not accurate, Mr. Mayor. And as I said, we've had several seats from 3K cut. There are parents worried that they can't even find a 3K or a universal pre-K seat that makes sense with where they live and with their daily routine. 

And that is really where your focus should be. Here in Albany, we've been improving affordability for child care. We're now up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line in order to make sure that we're providing subsidies. 

I'm going to move on to mental health. When will the $154 million granted to New York City in the opioid settlement money be distributed to the community-based organizations that are on the ground doing the work? We're in desperate need of thousands of supportive housing units. How and when is that money going to be released?

Mayor Adams: Well, I just want to go back. Your statement about parents being worried, I think you missed the part that I said. We broke a record of 150,000 children across our system. Everyone who applied on time had access to a seat. Not only that, when you talk about the opioid dollars, Staten Island was not approved. It was approved to get the opioid dollars. Partnering with A.G. James...

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you. Assemblyman Mamdani. Three minutes.

Mayor Adams: How are you, assemblyman?

State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani: I'm doing alright, Mayor Adams. Building off of Senator Liu's point, we've seen declines in attendance from immigrant students since President Trump rescinded a longstanding policy that prevented ICE from making arrests at sensitive locations like schools. 

To put these families at ease, will you today clearly state that as long as ICE does not have a judicial warrant signed by a judge, you will deny them entry into New York City public schools, hospitals, and any other city property?

Mayor Adams: We are examining all the EOs, and based on those EOs, we would never put an employee of the city in harm's way. The Corporation Counsel would make the determination of the training that we gave and protect not only the people of the city, but also our employees.

State Assemblymember Mamdani: So the reason I ask this is this is the law as of 2017, and because of the lack of clarity from city leadership, including yourself, we have seen incredible declines of students. 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, you're saying what? 

State Assemblymember Mamdani: Incredible declines of attendance. Your chancellor has said up to 5 percent. We've heard from specific schools in parts of New York City where it's up to 20 percent. That's why I asked that question. 

In the interest of time, just to move forward, you know, today in your budget testimony, you spoke about committing to make New York City the, quote, best place to raise a family. Are those the right words? 

And, you know, on January 16th, however, in your budget proposal, you had a $112 million cut in funding for 3K, and your Department of Education formed five early childhood centers that the city would not be renewing their leases. 

One parent of a four year-old who attended pre-K at Nuestros Ninos in Williamsburg said the news sent them into panic mode. How does cutting funding for child care, closing those five early childhood centers make New York City the best place to raise a family?

Mayor Adams: Well, let's first start with we do an analysis. You should always look how well you're doing from year to year to year. I said it again, and I'll say it one more time. 150,000 children, record. Previous administrations did not come near what we've done.

State Assemblymember Mamdani: I think the issue is, Mayor Adams, is that these are families, these are centers that are 75 percent enrolled. These are centers that have been operating, some of them, for more than 50 years, wait lists, full enrollment, and those parents are now scrambling to find new child care.

Mayor Adams: And let me tell you what we inherited, assemblyman, when we came into office. We had 30,000 vacant seats that taxpayers were paying for. We had to come in, realign the seats–

State Assemblymember Mamdani: But now you're taking those seats away.

Mayor Adams: We had to come in, realign the seats to make sure tax dollars were being paid accordingly. In addition to that, what we found, that I'm sure you would be surprised to know, that we had some facilities that were 50 percent full, 40 percent full. We had one facility that–

State Assemblymember Mamdani: These five facilities are at 70 percent enrollment, 75 percent at least, and you're proposing closing them. How do you explain that?

Mayor Adams: Well, I would, but I don't have time.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: That will remain a mystery. Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Senator Weik [inaudible] for five minutes. 

State Senator Alexis Weik: Good morning, mayor. How are you today?

Mayor Adams: Quite well.

State Senator Weik: So you have maintained the sanctuary status of New York City. And with that, with local governments concerned, that has affected governments all across New York State. And that has sent county executives, town supervisors scrambling for years trying to figure out what their next steps were going to be. 

And you've received millions of dollars from the federal government, billions of dollars from New York State, to assist in the sanctuary status of New York City. And I'm just curious, in the vein of trying to make New York State more affordable, do you have any plans of reversing your sanctuary status?

Mayor Adams: I don't control that law. It's a City Council law. And I always would support if people are paying their taxes, that the services that come from those taxes, they should be allowed to get them. But I don't control that law. 

I am asking the City Council to modify that law. If you commit a violent act in our city, you have violated your right to be in our city. You should be removed from our city after you serve your time. That's the law I believe, they don't want to change that. I don't control that law. That is not a law that I created. Mayor Koch started it. Mayor Bloomberg made some modifications.

State Senator Weik: But you've maintained it. And you certainly have the ability to reverse that at any court that you want. You are the mayor of New York City. And with that, it does still have an effect. 

Mayor Adams: No, senator, that's not true. 

State Senator Weik: It does still have an effect on all the counties across New York State. And so when counties on Long Island and upstate New York have to scramble to try to figure out are they going to issue an executive order to protect their county because they can't afford the decisions of New York State, when New York State clearly receives an enormous amount of funding from the state in the state budget every single year, more so than any counties receive from New York State. 

And with that in mind, what are your plans to make this more affordable? Did you look at the executive budget and identify things that you could reduce and not have to take that money so that you're becoming more streamlined?

Mayor Adams: Do it every day, but, senator, we need to go back to your original comment.

State Senator Weik: Can you identify any of those items within the executive budget?

Mayor Adams: We need to go back to your original comment that I control the sanctuary city law and I maintain it. I took great strides to explain that that's the City Council. I do not pass laws. The City Council, that's the level of government in New York. There's executive and there's a legislator. City Council has to make a determination to change that law. 

State Senator Weik: And do you encourage them at all? You're the advocate. So do you encourage them to change that status since you cannot fund it on your own? And even with federal and New York State funding infused into that, and you still can't seem to afford it, it's still a tremendous burden on all the taxpayers of New York State. What encouragement are you giving them to reverse that or make better budgetary decisions?

Mayor Adams: I think I took great stride in explaining to you what the modification I believe that's needed. But whomever is in our city and paying taxes, they should be able to utilize the services of the city because their tax dollars are paying for it as well. But when you commit violent acts in our city, you have violated your right to be in our city. And I made that clear for several years now.

State Senator Weik: But you recognize that your sanctuary status and inviting these individuals to come to New York City to be provided for when you cannot clearly provide for them has created an enormous impact on other counties outside of New York City that now have to provide funding and housing and resources to those individuals that they had not planned on before.

Mayor Adams: Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question. How what happens in the city is making something happen in one of the municipalities out of the city. I'm not quite getting that.

State Senator Weik: So when the migrants came to New York City and were bused out to other areas throughout the state because you had no housing for them, but had encouraged them to come to New York City, they were not provided for. And this put an enormous amount of burden on those counties and those towns.

Mayor Adams: And we allocated resources when we did that. But I think sometimes people really misunderstand that New York City is the economic engine of this entire state. And the amount of money we send to the state, we don't get back. So we have been lifting up counties.

State Senator Weik: Living in New York on Long Island, I will tell you that we out send to Albany. So Long Islanders send more money to New York State than New York City does. And we get a smaller return on investment.

Mayor Adams: I'm not sure what math... That’s that tricky math I used to do in school.

State Senator Weik: I think we're going to agree to disagree on that.

Mayor Adams: Don't think for one moment that anywhere sends more money to the state than New York City. We're the economic engine. And we have lifted up this state during difficult times when the other municipalities–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you. Assemblyman Fall.

State Assemblymember Charles Fall: Thank you, Chair Pretlow. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for being here. Thank you for the work that you guys are doing. I sent you a letter last year about adding more NYPD officers on the North Shore of Staten Island. You responded, and you added more officers. So I want to thank you for that. 

We do need more officers at the First Precinct in Lower Manhattan, on the other side of my district. So I encourage you guys to please look into that. Last year, I also asked you guys to address the issue at the Carter Center. You changed the provider, and things have significantly changed. And you hear good feedback from the community about that. 

Lastly, the fence that Martling and Clove Lakes, the DOT made a bad decision. You stepped in. You made a good decision. Everybody's happy on Wesley and West Bryant for that. I want to get into EDC, New York City EDC. I have three counties in my assembly district. 

When we reach out to EDC about helicopter concerns, they've addressed it, and they actually have a long-term plan on how they're going to fix that. And also the resiliency issues, they have a plan. When it comes to Kings County, the Marine Terminal, they keep me in the loop of everything that's going on. When it comes to Staten Island, EDC is radio silent, and they are failing Staten Islanders with Empire Outlets and with the [inaudible]. 

It's been going on for 10 years now, and I really need some serious intervention. And I also want to get your perspective. If EDC cannot handle what's going on on Staten Island, should we look at maybe moving to EDC, possibly taking over the operations of the Empire Outlets and the [inaudible]? Any thoughts on that?

Mayor Adams: You know, before coming into office, as mayor, Staten Island was called the forgotten borough, and now you're the remembered borough. Even with your advocacy, when there was an attempt not to give you opioid money, you stood up, and we were able to fight to make that happen. We're developing a whole North Shore, what we're doing there. And we're going to make sure we continue to look out for Staten Island. But I know you're biting at the bit to talk about that.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Given your leadership and partnership, assemblymember, I do not like hearing that any agency has not been responsive or communicative on issues that I think are of common interest. And so the commitment of Economic Development Corporation to the North Shore is long, and many investments on public ground, and wanting to unstick a number of challenging development projects over time. 

But I will personally make sure that you have a detailed briefing, and we can schedule that next week, on all of those aspects, because we want to not just keep you in the loop, but make sure that you continue to be a partner in the development there that brings homes and jobs to the people of Staten Island.

State Assemblymember Fall: I appreciate that. And my last seconds, I do want to thank you for also closing the shelter at 99 Washington Street. I'm curious to know what's going there next. And also curious to know if there's any updates with our Staten Island Ferry to Brooklyn. And the police museum has been closed since Sandy in Lower Manhattan needed it reopened. Need your support for [inaudible]. Thank you very much.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. Senator Roxanne Persaud.

State Senator Roxanne Persaud: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: Good morning. 

State Senator Persaud: Good seeing you here. So as the chair of the Social Services Committee, I just have a question pertaining to shelters and the Department of Investigation's report that came out in August of 2024. And it addressed some serious issues. It raised some serious issues. How do you go about addressing the report on shelters? And how do you fix the issue with the overspending that seemed to be taking place in shelters?

Mayor Adams: I really want to bring all of us, the lawmakers here, I really want to bring us back to what we inherited. Senator, we were getting 4,000 people coming to our city a week. We were getting 8,000 every two weeks. We had to open the space. 

We had to find vendors that were willing to take on some of these contracts. The enormity of this problem, we were being sued by legal aid because we weren't finding housing in a certain period of time due to the right to shelter law that was supposed to just accommodate 40,000 people. 

What this team did, we had to build a shelter system in weeks, something that took 40 years to build. And so we did, under the leadership of my chief of staff, Camille Joseph, Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom, Molly, the whole team came together and said, let's build a system that took 40 years to build. And during that time, we had to find those vendors. We had to find the contracts. And all of us know in government, it's easy to look after the game was over and say what the quarterback should have done. But when you're in that field, moving that ball down the field, we did it. 

220,000 people, 180,000 no longer in our care, not one child or family sleeping on the streets because of what we've done. Yes, when you're doing analysis, can you do things better? Yes. We were able to bring down the cost. We saved billions of dollars because of what we did. We committed to a 30 percent decrease in asylum seeker costs. We did it. 

And this is a learning experience, but I guarantee you, when people go back and read this part of the history, they're going to see how successful we were on managing the greatest humanitarian crisis in the history of this city.

State Senator Persaud: So I just want to commend your team for all the work they did in keeping us informed as to the issues that were occurring. That is not it. But I just want to make sure that we respond to what the DOI report showed. That's all that is about. And talking about, you know, Assemblymember Fall, talking about the needs of our precincts, I just want to advocate for the six police precincts that I have in my district and the two PSAs. They are wholly understaffed. And as you know, in parts of my district, there is a spike in crime, and we need the assistance of NYPD. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: We're going to look at that, and I want to thank you for running your bills. My team told me, my mentors. Yes, yes.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Assembly. We've been joined by Assemblymembers Reyes and Jackson. My next person is Assemblymember Diaz.

State Assemblymember Landon Dais: Good morning, mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you doing, assemblyman? 

State Assemblymember Dais: I'm a little aghast. My Assemblymember, Mr. Brown, said he's the best dressed in the Assembly now. I feel a little the way about that. We have a short time, so I'm going to be rapid fire real quick. I have a construction background. I care deeply about infrastructure in New York. So my question is a follow-up to Chairman Burke in reference to progressive design and alternative delivery. Is it working, and is it the best way for New York City to move forward?

Mayor Adams: You want to take that, DM?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Sure. We are seeing very positive results, both in terms of savings on time, savings on money, and the limiting of change orders, which often create more expense and delays for projects. The dollar savings we have estimated at about 10 percent for projects that utilize the tool.

State Assemblymember Dais: That's key. One thing I have been noticing, and I'm hoping that the city will be able to provide a study on the impact on MBE, WBE, specifically segmented into each one. As someone with a construction background, we like to talk about WBEs. 

Women do extremely well, but we look at the racial breakdown. Black and Latino businesses sometimes are underperforming in construction, so I want to put a focus. Joint bidding. It's a complicated matter. I've worked on those type of projects. We've got to get the utilities to the table. What is the city doing with utilities and the contractors to make sure that we can push an agreement to get an agreement on the table?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: We're in constant and repeated conversation with all stakeholders, including contractors, labor, et cetera, because lots of different players who have to work together so that the objective of joint bidding, which is to reduce complexity, are achieved. 

State Assemblymember Dais: Thank you. And to make a quick switch to child care, one issue we're having in the Bronx and throughout the city is amazing. My wife's in child care. She runs it for 1199, and we're seeing an issue with reimbursement payments to some of these nonprofit organizations. This seems to be a bottleneck. What are we doing for this next quarter to help alleviate that issue?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: It is a multi-pronged approach, assemblymember, specifically on child care invoices. In the last fiscal year, we accelerated about $440 million, but I also want to say in those payments, but I also want to assure you that as it relates to nonprofit payments in general, it includes bringing down the bureaucratic barriers and a new discretionary method to get more funds to not-for-profits more easily. 

We have an interagency approach. We have a new executive order, so everybody has a not-for-profit point who is focused on these issues. We have been extraordinarily committed to this sector, which is why we also provided a COLA affecting 80,000 workers and bringing more than $700 million in funds to them because our commitment to this sector and its workers is quite strong.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you very much. Senator Cordell Cleare.

State Senator Cordell Cleare: How you doing, Mr. Mayor? 

Mayor Adams: How you doing, senator? 

State Senator Cleare: I hope you're well. I'm good. I want to get right to the questions. You know we are experiencing an affordability crisis in housing. I'm continuously concerned about the migration of Blacks in New York as well as the burden on older New Yorkers, so I wanted you to, if your administration could speak to what we are doing to create more affordable housing, affordable to Black New Yorkers and their incomes, as well as older New Yorkers and workforce in New York City.

Mayor Adams: So important, and you have been a real strong and leading voice around that, and that is what City of Yes was about. Far too many neighborhoods were a city of no. Every time we wanted to build in those neighborhoods, when you look at 51 community boards, I believe out of the 51, 10 of them build more housing than the other 40-something combined. So, FDM, do you want to go into some of this?

State Senator Cleare: But not just building more housing, building housing that is affordable to Black New Yorkers and seniors.

Mayor Adams: And that's important because, and you're right, and Black New Yorkers are also teachers. They're also firefighters. And it can't be just extremely low. When I speak to my accountant and my teacher, they're saying Eric was fleeing. When you look at those hundreds of thousands that left the city, they were middle-income Black and Brown folks, so we want to focus on that. But do you want to go into some of this?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yes. I'll mention a few of the highlights on the financing of affordable housing, which the last few years we've seen records broken because we need to see those records broken to provide more affordable homes to New Yorkers. 

However you cut it, the last two calendar years, the last two fiscal years are back-to-back records for not just the construction of new housing for extremely low-income individuals and for New Yorkers across the income spectrum, but also for housing for the formerly homeless, housing supportive homes. 

And specifically to your question on senior production, the last calendar year saw the most senior units produced on record for the agency at close to 3,000. And we want to continue that in the years to come. 

State Senator Cleare: Yeah, there's a great need for more. I just want to ask specifically about TIL buildings that are in the pipeline and if you can speak about where we're at in terms of transitioning those properties to low-income home ownership for tenants and also making the vacant units available for rent or sale.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yeah. I know, senator, this has been a great area of focus for Commissioner Adolfo Carrion. And so the TIL buildings have been, they've been waiting for revitalization and to move forward in the process for many years. And so the ANCP program is the answer to that.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Assemblymember Epstein. 

Mayor Adams: How are you doing? 

State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein:  Good. How are you today? 

Mayor Adams: Good. 

State Assemblymember Epstein: Good. I want to turn back to the issue of mental health crisis. And how are we going to get more supportive housing units online in the city to ensure that people with serious mental health issues have a place to live? Because we see that crisis. We see people getting services, but they're coming back right to the streets instead of getting supportive housing. We need to double and triple those units online. And what's the city doing to make sure that happens?

Mayor Adams: You know, you have to inspect what you expect or it’s all suspect, I like to say. And the challenge of dealing with those with severe mental health illness, when I go into the subway system with our crisis team, with PATH and SCOUT, the amount of time it takes to build trust, to get people off the street into the supportive housing. 

And then when they get into supportive housing, the challenge that you need of making sure that they stay in supportive housing. It's a real challenge. Under Dr. Vasan, we want to embrace the clubhouse model that we've done for some time. 

But, you know, we removed 7,700 individuals transported that we transported to the hospital. The system that we put in place now under Dr. Katz is that we need the proper handle. You know, once, once you give people, once you convince people to come inside, you have to properly hand them off to the hospital facilities and they have to hand them off with a community-based organization that's going to give them the care, making sure they get the support that they deserve. But it's a real challenge.

State Assemblymember Epstein: Yeah. And I do think we just need to build more units, Mr. Mayor. And I hope that we will encourage that happening this year to expand more supportive housing units. But I know I have a lot of time. 

I want to turn to the discharge planning issues that are coming out of Rikers. You know, this gentleman, Ramon Rivera, stabbed three people in November in New York. He had been in Rikers, kept for nine months there in a mental health unit. 

He was released from Rikers to the men's shelter in my district. And then he stabbed and unfortunately killed two people in my district, as well as a third person. There needs to be stronger discharging plans for those folks who are leaving Rikers Island. And what are we going to do to ensure people are leaving, get to a place that they can get the support? The guy just didn't show up for his appointments and then he was just lost. And then that resulted in three New Yorkers dying. 

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. And you're dead on. Our analysis, we clearly saw that the system was a revolving door system. You pick a person up, you take them inside the hospital. In many cases, they did not want to keep them in. Then you turn them back out to the street. You wait until they commit some form of violent act. Then you put them up in Rikers. Rikers has become the defunct mental health facilities. And we want to change that. And that's what. 

State Assemblymember Epstein: Yeah, we really need to do that. And the last thing is, we put money in for middle income housing. We haven't built a new Mitchell-Lama development in 60 years in the city. Can we commit to getting more middle income housing in our city? 

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yes. 

State Assemblymember Epstein: Thank you.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Nice, short answer. Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you, Senator Sanders.

State Senator James Sanders: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Good morning to your team. 

Mayor Adams: How are you, commissioner?

State Senator Sanders: I feel real. 

Mayor Adams: I mean, how are you, senator? 

State Senator Sanders: It's all good. Maybe it's a future thing that you're thinking about. Who knows? Who knows? A statement, a thank you, and a question. First, a statement on MWBE. New York City, with a budget of around $129 billion, has been able to do $6.4 billion in MWBE. New York State, with a budget of $259 billion, has done $3 billion. You may want to… hey, we need some help. Give us some ideas. 

A thank you. Thank you for your support on initiatives. I'm very interested in what we're doing for the next generation. What are we doing not just about problems, but how are we going to move this city forward? So I'm very grateful for your help with a media school that we're doing in Queens. Thank you for that. 

Speaking of schools, I want to, you raise an issue, and I'm chair of banks, so I'm very interested in these things. You raise an issue of banks in schools, an initiative that you're interested in doing. Can you expand a little bit on the initiative? I'm very interested, and, in fact, we want to be first.

Mayor Adams: Commissioner Mayuga from DCWP, this is her baby. All of us know, I left high school with a credit rating that was just dismal. We are now focusing on financial literacy. We want our children to be healthy physically, mentally, by doing our meditation in school, breathing exercises, academically. 

But what about financially? If you don't understand how to use your money, you're going to find yourself perpetually in debt. And so we are now going to partner with banks, other institutions, to come in, teach our children how to open up bank accounts, what is checking about, what are credit card interest rates. 

We're going to have an entire financial literacy program in our schools so our children can become financially sound to match their academics in the schools. And so we would love to partner with you. I know you've been talking about this for some time. We would like for you to be a partner with us accomplishing this task.

State Senator Sanders: We can recommend two or three schools immediately that could use these things. Are there any other initiatives that you would like to put forward from your administration? 

Mayor Adams: Around young people? 

State Senator Sanders: On any issue.

Mayor Adams: Preparing them for the future, partnering with our business leaders and allowing them to go into real careers, and we are really making them career ready in the process. If I could share later–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: You can finish your sentence. 

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Assemblymember Valdez.

State Assemblymember Claire Valdez: Okay. Thank you, chair. Good morning, Mayor Adams. As was already mentioned by I think a few of my colleagues at this point, we're seeing that students around New York City are afraid to go to school. 

Attendance rates in public schools has dropped following the Trump administration's change in guidance to sensitive areas. Do you think it makes New York City a better place to live when our kids are afraid to go to school when parents are keeping them home?

Mayor Adams: I'm having a problem hearing you.

State Assemblymember Valdez: Do you think it makes New York City a safer place when our kids are afraid to go to school because they're worried that when they come home their parents won't be home or that there will be immigration consequences to participating in public education?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and I think how we do that, how we make it safer and deal with the anxiety and take down the tone is not so much what children are doing but what adults are doing. 

I think that we need to let these children know that they can continue their education. Our administration has stated this over and over again, create a safe environment for children. The staffs at the Department of Education, the teachers, the principal, they've done that. They've embraced thousands or 40,000 children. 

Some of them came out of their own pockets of clothing, school books, materials. I think if adults take down this tone and just ensure that these children are going to be in a healthy environment, that's what we've provided. We've provided a healthy environment. Just the other day someone called me and said ICE is outside the school, raiding the school. It just wasn't true. An adult posted that on social media. And so how much are we contributing to this anxiety that these children are failing?

State Assemblymember Valdez: Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, I've had superintendents from schools in my district say that they don't feel that they've gotten the guidance they need from your administration to make sure that the students are staying safe. 

So I just want to make sure that guidance is coming from your administration that they're staying with their parents and their teachers and their students, no matter where they come from. 

Just in the interest of time, this morning as I was getting ready to come to this hearing, I heard on the radio that when asked if you had any concerns about the changes that are happening at the National Labor Relations Board right now, you said no to everyone who might not be paying attention. Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, was fired, so was Jen Wilcox, a board member. Did I hear you correctly? Do you have no concerns about the changes there?

Mayor Adams: No, you didn't. But let's go back. Just as you stated that people have stated that we have not done enough, I've heard people say we have done enough. So I always say 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. I did not say no. Gary LaBarbera was standing next to me. The question I said no to was the concerns around tariffs. We have to secure our borders, and we cannot continue to allow terrorists to come across the border. So I did not say no.

State Assemblymember Valdez: So you are concerned about what's happening at the NLRB right now? 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, say it again? 

State Assemblymember Valdez: So you are concerned about what's happening at the NLRB right now?

Mayor Adams: I could actually add another time. The buzzer went off. Thank you.

[Crosstalk.]

State Senator Robert Jackson: Well, thank you. So, mayor, first let me thank you and your team for coming up to Albany during our joint budget hearings and all to answer all of the questions I've put forward. I have a couple. 

How are we doing with foundation aid for New York City? Obviously, you know, that education is the key to uplift all families. It doesn't matter who you are. That's number one. 

Number two, a group of people, advocates, came into my office yesterday about funding at the federal level for autism, for a program that New York City is running. Can you have any information on that? 

And then I look at your information that your staff have given out about the Axe the Tax for the Working Class. In my district, the majority of the people that live in my district are the working class, and I'm very interested in all of the information that you have on this page. So those are the questions that I have.

Mayor Adams: So just the foundation aid piece. The changes proposed by the governor result in the city receiving $347 million less in foundation aid in ‘26. And so we agree with the data, but, you know, any less dollars that come from the state to the city is going to impact, particularly when we look at we're dealing with the class size issue, when we're dealing with hiring new teachers, we have to hire thousands of more teachers. And so any cut to foundation aid is going to impact us greatly. 

State Senator Jackson: And the other one's about autism. The autism program has been cut by DOE. A group came into my office yesterday speaking about that, and they wanted to know what you're doing about federal cuts to the federal cuts. Yeah, that's what they said.

Mayor Adams: All of these EOs we are examining to make sure our legal team are looking over them, to make sure that we're responding accordingly. And we're going to always fight to get the funding that we need for not only Washington, D.C., but Albany as well, New York City residents. We are fighters for every dollar we need. 

State Senator Jackson: And as I said to you, the working class is the majority of the people that I represent, and I'm just trying to look after their best interests. So thank you. Thank you very much.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Assemblywoman Shimsky. Who is no longer with us. Assemblywoman González-Rojas.

State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Timely processing for cash assistance applications in New York City sits at a meager 53 percent. SNAP processing is far below the 95 percent target. I just learned that city workers are living in shelters. You say you want to address affordability for New Yorkers, but your rent guidelines board has increased the rent each year since you began, and you fought the City Council on housing vouchers that will prevent homelessness, and public assistance applications are still not processed at the rate they should be. How are those moves addressing affordability for everyday New Yorkers?

Mayor Adams: I can't really hear that well, but I think you were talking about our housing vouchers?

State Assemblymember González-Rojas: The housing vouchers. The slow applications for cash assistance, which is now at 53 percent. SNAP processing is still below the 95 percent rate, and the many city workers I just learned are actually living in shelters because they can't afford to live here. So how do these moves support your affordability goals in New York City?

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that. Senator, when I was a senator, I was hearing about city employees living in shelters.

State Assemblymember González-Rojas: I'm assemblymember.

Mayor Adams: Assemblywoman. I was hearing about city employees living in shelters. That's why when you look at what we did in selling 97 percent of our contracts with 97 percent, 98 percent ratification rate, one of our largest unions, DC37, would tell you how much we wanted to give fair contracts to our city employees because I know what it is to be on the verge of homelessness. And so we have– FDM, go into some of these stats on cleaning up our backlogs that we have.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yes, of course. We've been really focused, Assemblywoman, on making sure that those backlogs that existed when we started in this administration for both SNAP and cash have been cleared. And so to be specific about it, as a result of that increased focus over the past year for SNAP, the timeliness rate has increased 27 percentage points from 51 percent in December 2003 to 86 percent. And in terms of cash assistance, the timeliness increased by 39 percentage points. 

State Assemblymember González-Rojas: But it's still at 53 percent. That's very low.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: There might be more work to do, but I can assure you that the good people at HRA and across city agencies are spending every day because they know that these are lifelines, making sure that they're cleared, and we keep increasing those rates.

State Assemblymember González-Rojas: But, Mr. Mayor, I do want to hear from you directly about how you are targeting and addressing affordability. We know that's the number one issue in our city and in our state.

Mayor Adams: And as you stated, the numbers are still low. We're getting a large volume of people who are applying, everything from paying medical debt to–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Senator?

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. Senator Julia Salazar.

State Senator Julia Salazar: Thank you, chair. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your testimony today.

Mayor Adams: Thank you, senator. Good to see you.

State Senator Salazar: Good to see you. Senator Ramos referenced this, but I have to return to it since it particularly impacts my district. City Hall has declined to renew the leases of two child care centers in my district, Nuestros Ninos in Williamsburg and Grand Street Settlement, Stanhope Street location. 

Both of these child care centers are models for quality child care in New York City, high enrollment at both. In fact, full enrollment with a waiting list at Grand Street site. Forcing these centers to close would devastate the families that they serve. It would hurt the union workers, the child care providers who work there, and it would exacerbate the lack of affordable child care options that we are dealing with in the city. What will you do to ensure that these child care centers can stay open? And what would you say to families affected by this decision?

Mayor Adams: We– and I spoke with Attorney General Letitia James yesterday about this and other electives on this, including our Borough President Reynoso. And so what we look at, we look at three items. Number one, are you reaching the capacity of the young people in your child care center? Because we have 30,000 empty seats we have to reconfigure. 

Number two, what is the cost? One landlord is trying to jump the rent from $30,000 a month to $80,000 a month. Number three, do you have other child care centers in the area? Because many of the child care centers were densely populated and we were having low enrollment. 

Those five centers didn't meet any of those items, didn't meet those three items, I should say. And so what we're doing now, I told the chief of staff, let's sit down with the electeds in the area and let's figure out what we can do to resolve this issue, but we're going to need help because too many of our children who should be in these centers, we're not recruiting them to get them in. 

The City Council partnered with us. We're using a large amount of money, millions of dollars to get children in, but we can't have centers occupied with 40 percent vacancy and you have other centers in the area. We're just feeding that crisis that we saw when we first came into office. So I would like for you to be part of this team with Chief of Staff Camille Joseph-Varlack and the chancellor and see how we can resolve this issue.

State Senator Salazar: Thank you. I look forward to continuing that conversation with the time I have left. There are recruitment and retention issues for civil service jobs across the state. We know this. 

Currently, New York state law does not allow non-U.S. citizens to hold a number of public service positions, certain public service positions in state law, although many people are interested in serving and are uniquely qualified to serve their communities. We know that this has affected the City of New York. There's a vacancy rate for public sector jobs. Would you support changing state law?

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator. Assemblywoman Seawright.

State Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hello, mayor. As chair of the Aging Committee, I'm hearing a lot from older constituents in my district on the Upper East Side that have reported serious injuries due to electric bicycles, including on the sidewalk. So what changes could be made with the NYPD to support enforcement of existing laws and apprehending these people?

Mayor Adams: I have not attended one senior center, one forum, one community group when this question did not come up. I'm surprised it took this long because I hear it all the time. And I instructed the NYPD under Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry to put in place a real plan with Chief of Patrol John Chell to go after them. 

We have removed over 80,000 illegal vehicles off our streets. Many of them are dirt bike, three wheelers. You go back two, three years ago, they were running rampant. Large motorcycle gangs were going through our streets. You don't see that anymore. 

Now we're zeroing in on those who are delivery workers, those who are just using it for transportation, and we're doing better enforcement and educating those who are utilizing this effort to go after the proper uses of e-bikes. It's a real concern. We've heard it over and over again, and we want to make sure that it's handled correctly, and they're doing that as well.

State Senator Seawright: Thank you. I know you're a proud graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In an effort to tap into the pipeline of young people interested in law enforcement careers, the current police cadet program has under 250 participating in it. So is this something that you could ask your new highly regarded police commissioner, Tisch, to take on looking into expanding greatly this program for the five boroughs?

Mayor Adams: Yes, without a doubt. I think it's probably the secret weapon to how we've improved relationships between police and young people. The cadet program, the Explorer program, those are excellent programs, and we would like to see it increase and expand even more.

State Senator Seawright: And lastly, I have Roosevelt Island in my district. I thank you for visiting a while back. The constituents are interested in priority boarding on the tram. As you know, Roosevelt Island was originally invented for people with disabilities, and they're incurring long, long wait lines due to the visitors to the island and tourists. Would you support priority boarding? Community Board 8 has passed a resolution in support of it.

Mayor Adams: Tell me that again?

State Senator Seawright: Would you support priority boarding of the tram on Roosevelt Island for local residents of the island?

Mayor Adams: Okay, before I say yes–

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, assemblywoman. Can I just remind everyone, when you see the yellow light, that means you have 30 seconds remaining. If you continue your question through the yellow light, you don't leave any time for a response, which just happened. Senator.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. Senator Rolison.

State Senator Rob Rolison: Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mr. Mayor and the team. A lot has been said. The governor's talked about it. You have been an advocate for it, the involuntary commitment of the individuals who are in crisis on your streets, our streets. And it is a larger problem than just talking about it. 

You mentioned, Mr. Mayor, correctly, that these individuals, multiple interactions, it's very difficult to get them to want to get help. And what do you see, and your team sees, as the build-out of this system needs to happen? 

You know, you've got the people trained on the streets, as many communities do. But after, and they're ready to make a commitment, or they have to be taken in custody, so to speak, on a commissioner's order or whatever, to go to an involuntary commitment, or even any commitment for that matter, Mr. Mayor. What does that infrastructure look like? And what does this state need to do to help you and other communities get there? It's one thing to talk about, but what else do we need to do as a state to create that system?

Mayor Adams: Great, great question. And that's why we're really pushing the Supportive Interventions Act. Because it starts with family members who want to refer their loved ones to care. And not just push them to the streets. And there's not a real, well-understood pipeline to accomplish that. 

And so we first must make sure our programs like SCOUT and PATH, that's partnered with clinicians and law enforcement officers, when they need it, to get people to the hospital, to get care when it's needed. 

And then our hospital staff must have clarity, codified in law, that they can hold people to the appropriate amount of time, not feel they have to release them right away. You give someone their medication, they go right back out into the street when it's one day. We should look at their history. Are they using drugs with the medication that they're receiving? And give them a period of time to hold them. And then the proper handoff. 

The community-based groups and organizations that are out there that can give them that continuous care to make sure that they get the support that they deserve, that they don't slip and fall back into the system. That is how we address this problem.

State Senator Rolison: And briefly, if that was all ready to go today, are the supportive beds available?

Mayor Adams: Well, we put back online our psychiatric beds. Those went offline after COVID. We need our private hospitals also to do so. And we have to continue to build out to get those supportive beds. And everyone needs to embrace it. When we try to put supportive beds or supportive housing in certain locations, there's a lot of pushback. And we need to know that these are our citizens, they're our residents, our neighbors, and we need to be there to allow them to be part of the community.

State Senator Rolison: Thank you.

State Assemblymember Anil Beephan Jr.: Good morning. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

State Assemblymember Beephan: Good, thank you. So back to your favorite topic, migrants. Mostly particular to Dutchess County. So in 2023, your administration transferred both adult and children migrants to Dutchess County. My questions are pertaining to the adults that are currently housed at the Red Roof Inn. 

It led to litigation and executive orders and all of that. But in December, there was an announcement from your office stating that the migrants from Dutchess County were going to be transferred out. What is the status of that transfer?

Mayor Adams: Now, they're in your county? Help me understand.

State Assemblymember Beephan: Correct. Yep, Dutchess County, Poughkeepsie. 

Mayor Adams: They're in Poughkeepsie.

State Assemblymember Beephan: Correct.

Mayor Adams:  And you're saying they're going to be transferred back?

State Assemblymember Beephan: Correct, yeah. By a statement made from your office in December that you had stated or someone from your office stated that migrants were going to be transferred out of Poughkeepsie.

Mayor Adams: Let me look into that. Every deal we made with those counties who were extremely helpful when we needed it, we lived up to all those deals. And if there's a reason that we did not live up to those deals, I'm going to make sure that my chief of staff who has been part of this and Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom zero in and find out exactly what happened. But we've lived up to all the deals. And those counties that came in and stepped up for us, we don't want to violate any agreement we made with them.

State Assemblymember Beephan: Understood. Was there coordination with Dutchess County prior to the migrants being relocated there?

Mayor Adams: Every time we moved migrants and asylum seekers up into a county, we coordinated. We communicated. We did not want them to wake up and feel like New York was doing to them what has been done to us. And so we took great strides in that communication.

State Assemblymember Beephan: Understood. Well, I have heard from several local business owners in that area that there's been issues stemming from that ongoing situation there. I won't get into the details, but if your administration could look into that, we would greatly appreciate that, especially if the transfer is pending sometime soon. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Okay, thank you.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I believe I'm the last senator, so to speak. So I know there's been a number of questions about migrants and federal policy and what the City of New York has been doing. 

And I was just sent an article from Crain's Business that while the Greater New York Hospital Association has sent out a memo to its members urging them how to handle situations if ICE agents show up for patients, that New York, NYU Langone, a hospital in my district, is taking the position that the staff, please note it is illegal to intentionally protect a person who is in the United States unlawfully from detention and not saying privacy for patients not cooperating. 

And I'm just curious now what the administration is going to do about this. I find it both very disturbing and, frankly, actually a violation of patient privacy rights in the State of New York. And I don't know that you know about this because I'm just seeing this right this second, but I do think this is a real concern, particularly because NYU Langone, of course, as you know, is directly next door to Bellevue, which is probably the public hospital with the largest number of patients that are not U.S. citizens. 

And they overlap medical staffs and residents. So if you're on one side of the floor, you get one set of instructions about how to handle ICE. And if you're on another side of the floor in the other building, you get different. I think we have to deal with this.

Mayor Adams: And what is the instruction? I'm sorry. You said they told them?

State Senator Krueger: This is from Crain's business, Crain's Health Pulse, that that hospital focuses on our obligation to comply with federal laws and regulations, instructs staff to notify the security department when a government agent requests information on a patient or access to a nonpublic area, and states it is illegal to intentionally protect a person who is in the United States unlawfully.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I'm not familiar with, and, you know, those are definitely not under, the hospital is not under H&H. That's a private hospital. 

State Senator Krueger: It's a private hospital. Well, we have lots of private hospitals in New York City.

Mayor Adams: And I'm not familiar with exactly what's in that article. And we would look over and see exactly what's in that article.

State Senator Krueger: I'm urging you that you need to look into this and do something. I didn't expect you would know this now because it's coming across as an announcement, as a press story right this second. But it's a very disturbing one to us. Frankly, from a public health perspective, for all of us, regardless of our legal status here, if people don't think they can go to hospitals for healthcare, you have a new public health crisis on our hands here in New York City.

Mayor Adams: We agree 100 percent. And we have articulated it over and over again, not only going to hospitals, going to schools, getting services from law enforcement. And, you know, I often heard today about the substantial drop in enrollment in schools. And I should have said it right away. That is not true. We don't have a substantial drop in enrollment. That is, again, adults need to tone down the anxiety. We can't just put rumors out there. We don't have a substantial drop in our schools.

State Senator Krueger: Right. So during the education hearing, and it was after your chancellor had already left, so I couldn't ask her, there was a discussion that the superintendents of the other big five schools were complaining that when students enroll in charter schools but then drop out or are asked to leave, that they need to come back to the local public schools system. And I'm curious what your understanding is for New York City. 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry? Charter schools? When people drop out of charter schools, does the money go back to the district schools? 

State Senator Krueger: Correct. 

Mayor Adams: I’m not sure.

State Senator Krueger: You don't know either. Well I encourage you to look into that. Because legally, it is supposed to go back to the public schools. And the fact that the other big five superintendents were saying that they weren't giving it back raised a red flag to me that we need to look into that for New York City, because the law is that that should be happening.

Mayor Adams: That’s what the current law states? Okay, we're going to look into it. 

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. So you heard some people talking about congestion pricing. I happen to be a fan of it. I think that you support it. Do you have some experience from what you're hearing about the value to New York City of congestion pricing?

Mayor Adams: Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, is doing an analysis. She sits on the MTA board as well. And she's doing an analysis. It's still fresh. And so I think the jury is out on are we reaching what we want. I think we're obligated to raise that billion dollars each year. 

And so we need to do an analysis, see what the impact was, the impact on environmental issues in other parts of the city. And so I think the jury is still out. And we need to make sure that we deal with traffic, deal with congestion. It's an economic issue as well as a health issue. And we're going to continue to monitor it. Thank you.

State Senator Krueger: The federal government has certainly made noise already in this first month of the new administration that they don't like the idea of having to pay for public housing. What's the contingency plan in your budget or for the City of New York if they stop sending money for NYCHA?

Mayor Adams: Well, when you look, senator, the fact that NYCHA has an $80 billion capital deficit, $80 billion. I think that far too many levels of government have walked away from NYCHA. We all need to do more. For the first time, first deputy mayor, included in our housing budget, NYCHA isn't part of our housing plan. And everything from the success we've had up here of getting the land trust passed, which we've been voting on, we have to find creative ways of closing that gap. And that is coming from every level of government. We’re going to do our part, on the city, but to federal and state, we need to reinvest in public housing again.

State Senator Krueger: Thank you. You just announced a deal with the United Nations for the UNDC bonding $500 million to redo UN 1 and 2, which are city-owned buildings, which were in my district forever but technically are now Senator Gonzalez's district. 

So we had made a deal with the previous administration that those buildings would get sold and a certain percentage of the money from the sale of those buildings would go towards the building out of the East Promenade waterfront. 

Now that it appears we're going to raise, bond $500 million to redo the buildings, I guess to continue the lease to the UN, are we ever going to make good on the commitments for that East River Promenade that was supposed to be paid for with portions of the proceeds of the sale? 

And one of the issues was the UN was paying such a low rental amount that we were never going to get real money out of it. So I'm just curious, do we have a really good deal now and there will be money that can go towards the promenade? 

Because I know my community is already saying, what happens to the deal we made? And while many of us have changed seats since then, you were not the mayor. I was the senator, and I'm saying now I'm a next-door senator. A guy named Dan Garodnick was the city councilmember, and a guy named Brian Kavanagh, now a senator, was the assemblymember. So we negotiated this whole thing as an MOU with City Hall, and I'm curious whether that got factored into this new announcement.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: We'd be happy, senator, to follow up to make sure we're accomplishing as many goals as possible, including investments in public realm. And I think we have a strong track record across the city on the waterfront of making those types of investments. For this particular deal through UNDC, it represents 2,000 union jobs and several hundred thousand square feet of office space that will be renewed and revitalized and critical not just for job creation, but to make sure that we continue to be a global hub of commerce and the type of work that the UN represents. 

But I'd be more than happy to follow up on what was represented in that MOU to identify areas where we can look at those commitments and make sure that we're honoring them to the extent feasible.

State Senator Krueger: I appreciate that. Thank you. Last, it's silly to walk into 48 seconds with affordable housing, but we all know how important it is. And recently, it seems there are a few buildings that even have been going up in my district, and then little news stories come out that there will be X number of affordable units available, but they're not on the HPD website as something people can apply for. Did something change in the rules that they don't have to do that anymore and they can make their own deals for picking people?

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: If it's going through the lottery, they should be in our website. So, I'd be happy to follow up to make sure that there's no property that has slipped through the cracks for some reason.

State Senator Krueger: Okay. There's one on 78th and 1st, because I looked and it's not there. I think there were a few others. All right, my time is up. Thank you very much, Assembly.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, senator. Assemblyman Tannousis.

State Assemblymember Michael Tannousis: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

State Assemblymember Tannousis: Good, good. How are you? I want to talk to you today, I want to ask you today about the migrant shelters on Staten Island. I was glad that one of the shelters in Travis closed, but we do still have emergency migrant shelters on Staten Island, including one location, which is in my district, Island Shores, location along Father Capodanno. That location has been the center of protests. 

The community was up in arms when that shelter came about. The community was upset about lack of notice, about lack of communication between the Mayor's Office and the local elected officials, and there was very much a bipartisan effort to show our discontent for that location. My question for you today, Mr. Mayor, is when is that location going to close? Notice I'm not asking you if that location is going to close. My question is, when will that location close, Mr. Mayor, and finally bring peace to that neighborhood?

Mayor Adams: And that's the goal. We want to bring peace to the city. And as I said earlier, before your arrival, assemblyman, I have not found one elected official to raise their hand and say, hey, put the shelter here, Eric. Not one. I have to put it somewhere. And we want to minimize the disruptions to communities. We want to minimize how we have to keep people in shelters. 

You're right, adequate notice. We were not getting notice when we were getting 4,000 people a week, 8,000 people every two weeks, 16,000 a month. No one was calling us to say, hey, expect that bus load at 2 a.m. in the morning. We were mandated by the lawsuits from the Legal Aid Society. Within a certain period of time, we had to house people. And this team was up to 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning doing the best they can. And so we want to close that location as soon as possible. We closed 33 sites. No one thought we were going to close Floyd Bennett Field. It's closed. No one thought it was going to close Randall's Island. It's closing. 

We're going to try to close as many as possible. And you know what, when we tried to get people out, assemblyman, when we said you have 30 days, it's not a lifetime experience, people fought against us, but it was successful. We got 180-something thousand people out, and we look forward to the day that you and I stand in front of that site because we closed it together. 

State Assemblymember Tannousis: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I assure you that no one in Staten Island was upset about giving individuals 30 days to vacate the premises. But please keep that location in mind, and I'll be happy to work with your office to ensure that these locations are closed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you. Assemblyman Colton.

State Assemblymember William Colton: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. How are you, Assemblyman? We finished this early, possibly you'll be able to join us at our Asian Lunar New Year celebration this afternoon.

Mayor Adams: I was wondering about that red you were wearing.

State Assemblymember Colton: Before you became mayor, you strongly criticized the existing homeless policy, shelter policy, as failing to deal with the real problems of our homeless and creating a system of long-term shelters at exorbitant costs. 

Yet you have seemed to have greatly expanded that shelter policy. In recent reports from the DOI, there have been findings that there is nepotism, lack of competitive bidding, and exorbitant salaries of the city's shelter programs. City and state reported on the number of crimes that actually took place in the shelters against our homeless people. 

Statistics show that homelessness is continuing to grow. We're not talking about migrant homelessness. We're talking about city homelessness continues to grow and accelerate. The growing cost now for the city has soared to some $4 billion to $6 billion a year, and some say it's going to reach $8 billion a year. 

This is all money that is diverted from programs that would really help the problems of homeless people, and it is also connected with not providing proper services to those with mental illness problems. High-profile random attacks on the subways and the streets have created a fear among New Yorkers for using the subways and the streets. 

Why are we continuing to expand and to build more city-run shelters when it is clear this system fails to help homeless people, and it fails to help neighborhoods, and is not supported by anyone, whether it be the homeless people or by people in neighborhoods, and when it diverts billions of dollars that should be going to reduce homelessness and deal with the homeless problem, and not simply enrich the pockets of wealthy developers and wealthy operators who are paid– the Department of Investigation showed that they were paid exorbitant salaries, the CEOs operating the city homeless shelters. 

Why are we not listening to the voices of the vast numbers of New Yorkers telling us this program is filled with corruption, with nepotism, it does not deal with the needs of homeless people, and it diverts billions of dollars in a failed program which simply does not work?

State Assemblymember Pretlow: A three-minute question garners a zero answer. Assemblyman Gallagher.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing, Assemblyman?

State Assemblymember Jeff Gallahan: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, mayor. It is afternoon. I want to go back to the cannabis. I want to talk about cannabis. So back when we debated the bill a couple years ago, I was vehemently adamant about funding our sheriff, our cities, our towns, and our New York State police to combat black market sales. 

Black market sales in every other state that enacted cannabis legally, the average increase in black market sales is 138 percent. There was nothing in the bill to address that. Nothing. There's nothing in the governor's budget to address that. I commend you for what I heard earlier about how you've attacked that market in New York City and what you're doing to eradicate the black market and increase our sales where we get the tax money. 

The show down the street, contrary to popular belief, is not paying the state a dime. So my question is, what suggestions do you have for us in the legislature? Do we can further provide you resources necessary to continue what you're doing?

Mayor Adams: Great question. Diane, you should touch on that because you're intimately involved in that. This is an area that we're finding we're having a problem with right now. These stores are, as much as you pass the law, they try to get ahead of you. 

We just learned now we cannot go in and do an inspection if they have a hemp license, which makes no sense. If they have a hemp license and selling illegal cannabis, we cannot go in and inspect them. The judge ruled that if someone has a hemp license, my sheriff can't go in and do inspections at all in the store. And so we may have to look at a modification on how to deal with that. And the Office of Cannabis Management needs to have a faster turnaround to let us know if a person has a hemp license. They are requiring us to return the product back to the people. That's the real problem. But, Diane, you want to?

Diane Savino, Senior Advisor, Office of the Mayor: Briefly on that, one thing that you guys can do to help us is there is a flaw in the hemp licensing law that the mayor touched on, which prevents us from going in and inspecting. OCM also cannot go in and inspect those localities that have a hemp license. Right now, though, the Ag and Markets, which issues hemp licenses, have been issuing temporary hemp licenses just online without any background checks. So many of the people that we closed down with the tools that you gave us last year, they're smart. They figured out that there's a flaw in the law, and they're doing that.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: We've been joined by Assemblywoman Walker. The next question is Assemblywoman Jackson.

State Assemblymember Chantal Jackson: Thank you, chair. Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you doing, Assemblywoman? 

State Assemblymember Jackson: All is well. Okay. So I know statistically crime is down. However, I'm in the South Bronx, so I'm the 4-0, the 4-1, the 4-2, PSA 7, 4-4, and 4-8. They are all asking for more officers. My seniors are asking for more officers. They do not feel like they are supported enough. So I'm going to state that. However, my young people are asking for jobs. They want more jobs. And I've gone to a number of your hiring halls. The lines are out the door and around the block. Our city wants to work. Our professionals also want to work. And a lot of the jobs inside are not necessarily for people who we told to go and get an advanced degree and a Ph.D. Those people are looking for work as well. So any suggestion that what we should be doing in the budget to help all levels of people's education with working?

Mayor Adams: I love that question. And we brought down unemployment in every demographic in the city. Black unemployment was four times the rate of white unemployment when I came into the city. We dropped Black and Hispanic unemployment by 20 percent. As you stated, we've been doing these hiring halls. And I would love to sponsor more in your district because we have thousands of vacancies in city government. 

Good jobs, school safety agents, correctional officers that was mentioned earlier by the assemblyman about employing our correctional officers. We are in a crisis for teachers because of what we've done around class size. So we need to get all these vacancies that are available in city government, good union paying jobs, good salaries, and the private industry have joined us and get it to the people that need a job. FDM, talk about some of the great work you're doing.

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Yes. In addition to what the mayor mentioned, we also have done a lot in two other areas. One, really building out apprenticeship opportunities, in particular for early career New Yorkers. And it's an opportunity to both earn and learn. And we see them. We work with the private sector in a whole array of industries from construction to tech and to life sciences.

State Assemblymember Jackson: Okay. So let me just pause because I need to ask about cannabis. And I'm going to have my office reach out so we can figure out a plan. But cannabis, I've spoken with OCM. I know that our sheriffs are able to seize product and to seize money. OCM is saying that they're not getting reports from us as to how much is being seized and where the money is. So can you tell me why they're not answering to OCM and where we can find how much funding and product was seized?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, that should not happen. So let's find out. I would have the Deputy Mayor Parker reach out to OC[M] and find out where the communication gap is. That should not happen. We could give them the stats and reports.

State Assemblymember Jackson: Okay. Because there was a hearing also and they asked how much money was seized and no one had an answer.

Mayor Adams: Well, they better. So let us look into that. 

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, Assemblywoman Simon.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing, assemblywoman?

State Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon: Oh, I'm fine. How are you, sir?

Mayor Adams: Good to hear you up there.

State Assemblymember Simon: Good to see you.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Thank you.

State Assemblymember Simon: Good seeing you as well. I have a couple of questions for you, probably not the ones you thought I would ask you. So I'm going to ask you some other questions, right? You know, I think Mr. Epstein mentioned before the disparities in the number of units for supported housing, and only 18 percent of those people who are eligible have been able to get units. So I just want to make sure that we are looking at how we can fix this, how we can make changes to that eligibility so that people actually – and we've reduced the barriers to actually getting that supported housing. 

But my question is, number one, New York City is currently doing a massive water table study, and I would like your commitment to authorize the addition to that of a hydrology study in the Gowanus watershed, which, as you know, is toxic, prone to flooding, and the site of 8,000-plus new housing units being put in.

Mayor Adams: One of my water people tell me about that before I say yes, because she's going to hold me to it.

State Assemblymember Simon: DEP doing a lot of work there, you know?

Mayor Adams: Let me have Rit communicate with you, Rit Aggarwala, who's the commissioner of DEP, and find out exactly what I'm about to say yes to, okay?

State Assemblymember Simon: Okay. I'm going to hold you to it. And then secondarily, the Brooklyn House of Detention, as you know, it's about a 40-story building. We were supposed to have about 160 therapeutic beds, which are used not only for people with mental illness, but chronic health conditions as well, and that's been cut in half. And now when we build out the four jails to replace Rikers, we will have roughly half the therapeutic beds system-wide. How do we square that with this concern that's been expressed about those people struggling with mental illness?

Mayor Adams: Great question. Assemblywoman, the plan is flawed, and I've stated this over and over again. It's like, you know, no one wants to acknowledge that it's a flawed plan because we put the plan in place already. 

The current jail population exceeds what the four jails are going to do. The price has doubled. You can't have 51 percent of the inmates having mental health issues. We need a state-of-the-art psychiatric facility. I think one of those jails should do that for in- and outpatient treatment that we can give a real care that we can be proud of. 

And so right now, when you look at the space that we need, we look at how long people stay on Rikers Island without getting their time in court. That is what's feeding this problem. Every aspect of the criminal justice system must participate in a real Rikers plan, and if we don't do that, we're going to have a real crisis down the road.

State Assemblymember Simon: We already do, and it's not getting better by reducing the number of therapeutic beds. We need more of them. If there's any place we need them, it's there. Thank you.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: I agree. Thank you. Assemblywoman Walker?

Mayor Adams: Assemblywoman, how are you?

State Assemblymember Latrice Walker: I'm doing well, but unlike my colleague, I'm going to ask you exactly what you think I'm going to ask you. And of course, Mr. Mayor, and to all of your colleagues, a pleasant good morning. So I'm going to talk about discovery. So you're a police officer, and a very good one. Or you were, but I'm sure once a police officer, always a police officer. And if I showed up on a crime scene and I told you what was relevant, don't look over here, this is not relevant, what would your response be to that?

Mayor Adams: I would say don't tell me what's relevant and what's not.

State Assemblymember Walker: So why do you think, then, it should be up to the prosecutors to tell the defense counsel what it is is relevant as it relates to discovery?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think there's certain ways you could do it, because that's why it's back up to you to look at it. They could be an independent eye. They could be coming in front of the judge and determine what's relevant or not. What we don't want to do is what we're seeing what the prosecutors have shared with us. If you have everyone's, for example, everyone's body-worn camera, a person who never even got out of the scene, he was in the car all the time, and you didn't get that body-worn camera, and all of a sudden the charge is dismissed because of that. That is what I believe they're talking about.

State Assemblymember Walker: Well, that is a very good point that you make, because the body-worn camera footage is in the possession of the Police Department. And so do you think that the Police Department has any accountability here to some of these dismissals that people have been talking about?

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. Everyone has accountability here. And I think that to do a fair analysis of discovery, based on what the prosecutors are saying, based on what they're saying, to allow those professionals to look and see exactly what we need to do, I think that that's what we should be using this legislative session to do so.

State Assemblymember Walker: I appreciate that, and I do believe there will be a continued dialogue, but I don't believe that that conversation can happen in a vacuum without the Police Department sort of having some skin in the game. And so there's a lot of conversation also that we've been talking about with respect to City of Yes. 

And we want to promote more building, but can you talk to me a little bit about how you would help us with reentry housing? A lot of times supportive housing is always, it's always like a catch-22 between which one is going to get built. We do need more supportive housing, but we also need more reentry housing for people who are transitioning out of Rikers Island and other places.

Mayor Adams: So important. You talked about that for quite some time, and we are strong believers in reentry housing and wherever we can place those projects. And you have been welcoming to place some projects in your assembly district. Far too many people are not welcoming in doing that.

And so I agree with you. As we look at supportive housing, we have to focus on a large number of people who had long prison sentences. They're coming home. They need to come home to a welcoming platform so they don't be repeat offenders.

State Assemblymember Walker: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you, assemblywoman. And Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for your testimony today. I guess I'll close it out. I really don't have any pertinent questions, just a few comments. And a question may hit me. 

First, to correct this statement that was made earlier, I know for a fact that more than half of the wealth of the State of New York comes from New York City. And I also know that more than half of the wealth of New York City comes from south of Canal Street. That's a fact. 

Rikers Island, I don't know if anything in the governor's budget mentions that. I know New York City is in the process of closing down Rikers and opening community jails. Can you just tell me what's going on with that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. You know, I said it over and over again, and I will continue to say the plan, assemblyman, is a flawed plan. And no one wants to acknowledge that. They all know it's a flawed plan, but no one wants to say it publicly. You cannot close down Rikers, build four more jails. 

That is not going to house the current population that you have right now. Double the price cost to build it. We're not dealing with the psychiatric issues that many of the inmates are experiencing. We're building four more smaller Rikers. And we need to be bold enough. If we're going to invest $16 billion, we should be bold enough to address all of the issues we are facing. 

We don't have so much a criminal crime problem. We have a mental health problem. And we need to be focusing on how do we address that mental health problem. And this is a great opportunity to do so. But the law requires 2027. Rikers has to close, cannot be used for a jail again. I just think we need to go back to the table and look at how we can do this correctly. This is a golden opportunity to get it right.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Thank you. And someone had mentioned migrants. And what is the city's policy on housing migrants, noncitizens outside of New York City? The reason I'm asking is because I represent a district just north of the city. And I had a few complaints, both three of them, from senior citizens whose landlords refused to renew their leases because New York City was offering maybe 60 percent more in rent than they were currently paying. 

And the landlord wanted to increase their rent 60 percent or not renew the lease because they were going to house someone from outside of the country. And that causes a little angst. I mentioned it to someone on your staff. I didn't get a real good answer. But is there a set policy for how you do that? 

I mean, I know you don't want to purposely create homelessness someplace else. But it seems that what's been happening, I don't know if it happens on Long Island or even up here in the Albany area where I know that migrants were being housed upstate. Is there a policy where you try to ensure that you do not create homelessness for another group of individuals?

Mayor Adams: Took great strides. The team took great strides in not displacing residents. We used, for the most part, hotels. And those who moved out of the hotels to stay in the areas, we took great strides to make sure we were not displacing the residents that were in the area. But many people returned to New York City. Some people stayed in those municipalities because they enjoyed the different life of being in those regions. But we took great strides to not displace long-term residents.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: So there is at least an attempt to do that. And if landlords don't tell you what's really happening, that's not in your control, you'll do what you have to do.

Mayor Adams: And I'm not aware of any landlords that are doing that.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Alright and this is my last question, just about floods. I was recently driving down the Henry Hudson Parkway, and it had just finished raining. And the water was like lapping up onto the highway almost. It seems that if the river rises, Eddie, we're going to have serious flooding. And I know downtown is at the water table now. 

Is anything in this current budget that would help you work toward any flood mitigation for the future? Because it's coming. And New York City is destined to be, at least lower Manhattan, is destined to be underwater, I think, by 2030 or 2035. So the time to start making corrections for that is now.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, FDM and her team under DM Meera Joshi, we acknowledge that climate change is real and it's going to impact our city. And the billions of dollars investment of being a city with so much coastal land, we know we have to be prepared for that. You want to talk about some of those things? 

First Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Sure. We've been very focused, assemblyman, on making sure that we're doing everything that we can on flood prevention. In our preliminary capital budget, for instance, just to name a few of those investments, almost $300 million to make flood-proofing upgrades to seven pump stations, mostly in Queens. 

Another $150 million to construct a storm sewer system in Harlem. Another $100 million for green infrastructure projects. $300 million to upgrade the sanitary sewer trunk in Jamaica. And a number of others who are very focused on this because we know that with climate change must also come the types of investments that protect neighborhoods, people, and entire families.

State Assemblymember Pretlow: Okay. Well, that concludes this section of this hearing. I want to thank Mr. Mayor and your staff.