Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. And just taking a point of personal privilege. I, too, want to thank you. You remind me of Sandra, my favorite sister. Even when we have a philosophical disagreement, I have her back, and I have your back.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Did Sandra usually win?
Mayor Adams: Yes.
[Laughter.]
Governor Hochul: That's good to know.
Mayor Adams: We have some real battles that we fought together from the Subway Safety Plan to navigating Covid to the challenges around mental health. We have been real partners, and I think we've shown an unprecedented relationship between the executive of the governor's mansion and the City of New York. And the only way we can get through this is that we're going to continue to get through it together. And I cannot thank you and your team enough for doing this.
I want to acknowledge the presence also of the comptroller of the State of New York, Tom DiNapoli, the comptroller of New York City, Brad Lander, and the private Members Commissioner Rosado, Steven Cohen and my good friend William Thompson, Jr. And I want to thank all the members of my team that are here, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Budget Director Jacques Jiha. And I'm happy to report that the city's recovery remains strong. We have regained 99 percent of the jobs lost due to the pandemic, and our economy has been growing at a faster pace than the state or country for approximately two years. Our streets are safer. Subway crime has dropped, and our gun violence prevention efforts have reduced shootings.
City streets, sidewalks and public spaces are cleaner and more inviting so no one should be surprised that tourism is on pace to exceed pre pandemic levels this year, and consumer spending is strong. Our success is due to upstream investments and smart policies. Put simply, we did not take the recovery for granted. We have made the city a better place to live, work and raise a family. We have fostered an environment where large and small businesses can prosper. And by carefully managing the city finances, we overcame unprecedented and substantial challenges without raising taxes or resorting to layoffs and service cuts.
The most profound challenge has been the rapid and accelerated growth in shelters across our city related to the arrival of 107,300 asylum seekers since spring 2022. Right now we're housing, feeding and caring for 59,400 migrants across 200 shelter sites and 15 large scale humanitarian relief centers. The massive influx has doubled our shelter population, pushed us to capacity and is exhausting our resources. The costs are substantial, and we expect them to grow further. We spent $1.5 billion in asylum seeker costs last year. Last month, we shared updated cost projections showing the crisis could cost more than $12 billion over three fiscal years and that we must add $7 billion to the financial plan to cover these expenditures.
And I cannot thank the governor for her help in securing a billion dollars in aid over fiscal years 2023 and 2024 to the state leaders, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader, Speaker Carl Heastie and the entire team up there realizing this impact to our city, we cannot say thank you enough. And for her commitment the governor's to secure an additional $1 billion in next year's fiscal budgets. We recently received $250 million from this allocation and appreciate the work her administration is doing to accelerate the delivery of funds. As you have recognized in your reports, we will need to add resources throughout the financial plan to accommodate growth in the population that exceeds our forecast and the anticipated increase in daily shelter costs.
On top of these unprecedented needs, we had to meet other anticipated and important obligations. When I took office, most of the city's labor contracts had expired. Even as recently as yesterday. The contract was expired for 13 years, we were able to bring to close. I'm proud of the work our employees do every day to lift working people up and keep the city safe and clean. They deserve certainty and fair pay, and now more than 80 percent of our workforce is under contract. To fund new labor settlements, we added $4 billion in fiscal year 2023 and 2024 and $12 billion in outyears through the city's labor reserve. Despite facing an unprecedented challenge and having to add billions of dollars to support unexpected needs, we kept fiscal years 2023 and 2024 balanced.
I want to emphasize that we accomplished this without layoffs, without raising taxes and without cutting services and still having resources to make a nearly $5.5 billion prepayment into fiscal year 2024. Our success is not an accident. In addition to actively supporting the recovery, we carefully managed the city resources by staying focused on core priorities. This includes monitoring economic conditions to ensure that we had the resources to meet needs as they arose, making efficient use of taxpayers' dollars and staying prepared for the future.
The fiscal year 2024 budget is $107.1 billion, with outyear gaps of $5.1 billion, $6.8 billion and $7.9 billion in fiscal years '25 through '27, respectively. At adoption, we're able to balance due to higher than anticipated revenues of $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2023 driven by strength in the local economy. In response to the dramatic growth in the course of caring for asylum seekers, the need to have funds to support labor deals and economic uncertainty, we implemented PEG programs in November and in April and a vacancy reduction initiative in January. These actions guaranteed or generated more than $4.8 billion in savings over fiscal year '23 and '24, all without layoffs, service reductions or school budget cuts.
Strong fiscal management also includes setting aside resources for the future. The fiscal year 2024 adopted budget maintains a near record $8.1 billion in reserve, which includes $1.2 billion in general reserve, $2.0 billion in the rainy day fund, $.58 billion in the retiree health benefits trust and $250 million in capital stabilization reserve. What we have done has not gone unnoticed. Rating agencies have validated our approach and the city's strong recovery. In February, Fitch ratings upgraded the city's bond rating from to AA from AA- and praised the administration's fiscal management, citing actions to increase reserves and achieve savings. Because we carefully manage the city's resources, we were able to make upstream investments and keep New York City safe and clean and deliver on our working people's agenda.
I want to thank, again, the governor for joining me to launch the Gun Violence Prevention Blueprint, a $485 million commitment to keeping New Yorkers safe. The program includes violence interruptions and engaging New Yorkers in positive activities so we can prevent violence before it starts. We're doing more to protect New Yorkers' health with a focus on addressing long ignored mental health needs. Our streets, our sidewalks and parks are cleaner and more livable. We were able to safeguard the loved institutions like libraries and culture spaces from budget cuts. We are investing in sustainability and resiliency because our children do not deserve a future with dangerous heat and air quality emergencies are the norm.
The actions we have taken to advance the city's recovery allowed us to meet unprecedented challenge and maintain fiscal strength. This, in turn, enabled us to make investments that promote a resilient New York and protect the most vulnerable members of the community. However, make no mistake, we have some serious challenges ahead of us. Asylum seekers continue to arrive at an unsustainable rate. Absent a real decompression strategy and appropriate fiscal assistance from the federal and state governments, the city's finances will be profoundly stretched through the coming months, in the coming months.
I believe we are stronger together as a team, so I look forward to working with you all elected officials across the city and state to make this a safer, more equitable and more prosperous city to live and work in for generations to come. As always, I thank you for the work you do on behalf of the greatest state and the greatest city on the globe. There's a lot of dispute about number two and three; there's no dispute about number one. It's New York City and New York state. Thank you very much.
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