By NYC Councilwoman Joann Ariola & Col. Thomas P. Sullivan, Candidate for NYS Assembly
New York City is in a tailspin. In large part thanks to the growing – and completely mishandled – migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams has announced that he’s planning enormous slashes to city services across the board. $32 million in cuts to the DSNY. $74 million from the FDNY. $132 million from the NYPD. A staggering $547 million from the Department of Education. The ensuing quality of life fallout from this will no doubt be disastrous. These are exactly the last departments that should be cut, as they represent the essential services that we expect from our taxes.
This is when we need to ask ourselves: where is Governor Hochul? Why is no one in Albany holding the governor accountable for ignoring federal immigration laws, and forcing her to pay for the migrant crisis that she herself is helping to perpetuate? When NYC signed the disastrous lease deal for Floyd Bennett Field, for example, the governor was supposed to cover that $22 million rental bill. Since then, we’ve gotten pennies from Albany.
That $22 million dollars could be used to help ensure that DSNY litter-basket pickup service remains uninterrupted, something which Mayor Adams has already said will be cut back significantly. It could pay to maintain the DSNY’s lot cleaning unit, which many say will be completely disbanded thanks to the city’s drawdown. It could help to pay for a new police class to keep the NYPD at a functional manpower level, and it could support overtime pay for the FDNY so that our firehouses remain fully staffed. It could be used to pay for safety agents in our schools instead of falling back onto the Mayor’s call for parents to volunteer time as school security – something especially needed now, as anti-Semitic riots are escalating and threatening both students and teachers across the city. And that $22 million is just a small drop in the bucket when we look at the big picture.
The migrant crisis is estimated to cost New York City’s taxpayers as much as $12 billion over the next two years, and the state is doing next to nothing to offset this. If Albany wants to keep saying that New York is a sanctuary state, and if Governor Hochul wants to keep welcoming migrants in with open arms, then Albany and Governor Hochul should help to pay for it. With a completely complicit Democratic supermajority in the Assembly and Senate, however, this seems unlikely to ever happen.
If we want to hold Governor Hochul accountable, we need a state legislature that will actually stand up to her. Currently, the majority of New York’s state senate and assembly, including our own locally-elected members, are all too comfortable going along with Hochul’s migrants-first policy. And, since our local state leaders won’t stand up for our communities, Governor Hochul is allowed to get away with this double whammy, forcing us to take thousands of migrants while also forcing New York City’s taxpayers to pay for it.
This is simply unsustainable, and the effects of these short-sighted policies built on little more than idealism without any check of reality are now starting to be felt. Unless something changes, we are going to continue our descent into political and financial chaos. We need competent State leaders who will defend the rights and security of citizens in our districts. Our communities deserve representatives who will put them first, and who will hold Albany accountable to ensure that essential services like police, fire, education, and sanitation receive optimal funding.
It is time for a change. Elected officials who do not stand up for their communities are not worthy of our support. We must send a clear message to Albany and City Hall that this crisis must be resolved, and our essential services must be restored. Think about that when you head into the voting booth next year.
Read here at: https://www.rockawave.com/articles/the-nyc-debt-crisis-where-is-governor-hochul/