Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In For Live Interview On 1010 Wins

January 17, 2024

Host: WINS News Time 7:50, Mayor Adams releasing his preliminary budget for fiscal year 2025. Totals up to around $109.4 billion, and not as much doom and gloom as originally thought. Mayor Adams joining us live from City Hall this morning. Good morning, mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. It's great to be on with you. And it's just clearly our message was to have a budget that's going to invest in public safety, people, and public spaces. And we wanted to do it based on what we acknowledged in November, a real crisis, and we came with a real management to really deal with the crises that we were facing and the economic challenges in front of us.

Host: Yes, mayor, you're going with that triangle offense, huh? I hope it works better for you than it does with the Knicks.

Mayor Adams: [Laughter.]

Host: Listen, you know, we always hear elected officials say, prepare for the worst, hope for the best when it comes to the weather, right? But I mean, that certainly seems to be the case with this new budget proposal.

Mayor Adams: No, without a doubt. And that's what we saw in last year. I projected that we will have roughly 100,000 migrants and asylum seekers in our care. We saw that we were not getting help from Washington, D.C. And so I told my budget director and the team we needed a two‑pronged attack: number one, we have to be able to pay for the 100,000; and in fact, we got $168,000 because of the surge.

And number two, we needed to make sure that we would have a balanced budget. And we took some good management tools. We were able to bring down the migrant and asylum seekers in our care to less than 100,000. We have now only 86,000. That was real cost savings for us.

Over 60 percent were able to become self‑sustaining, out of our system; and because of that dollar amount, we were able to restore some of the cuts to public spaces, public safety and people.

Host: Mayor, what's been the government's reasoning, right, for their lack of help with the migrant crisis? And with this windfall of money to spend now, is that going to make it even harder to get help from Washington, you think?

Mayor Adams: Well, first, I want to be very clear: there's not a windfall. We are not out of the woods. We have some real challenges moving into the outer years, and we still have to land this plane of the budget. We now have to sit down with the council and negotiate. So, there is no real strong cash flow.

If we don't get help from the federal government and from the state in a real way, we're going to have to put in place more what's called PEGs, cost efficiencies that's going to impact our delivery of services. So, what we stated is that when we identified the problem in November, we took corrective steps and actions to move forward, but we are definitely not out of out of the woods.

Host: Mayor, given the lack of support from the White House, can you sincerely throw your support behind President Biden in this election here?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do. I think the democratic party has a real vision for the country. And you know, when you support a candidate, it's not a one issue of item that you are just looking on. When you look at the economy, when the president came here, we were dealing with crime moving in the wrong direction. He came here and gave real support, stability to the ATF, we're seeing the success.

New Yorkers should really be proud of where we are. It has only been two years. People said it was going to take four to five years to turn around this city. We're seeing crime down, shootings, homicides, five of the seven major crime categories. We're seeing jobs are up, record level private sector jobs in the history of this city, more affordable housing being built, homeless New Yorkers being placed into housing. We're seeing real success. Bond raters are even seeing that.

And so when I look at the White House, I'm not only looking at just one issue, I'm looking at the totality of the direction of our country. And that is why I support the president.

But we have work to do here, but I just think on this issue they're wrong. We got to get this right so that New York is not picked up the burden of this national crisis.

Host: Mayor, the curfew for migrants kicked in last night, right, for shelters, 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Was that curfew adhere to; and, do you foresee more curfews being imposed on other migrant shelters?

Mayor Adams: Yes, we do. We believe we need to bring a level of normalcy to this problem that we're facing. It's not going away anytime soon. And so we want to give clarity to all the residents that are there.

We have a curfew in place for the normal shelter system in our city. The Humanitarian Relief Centers, such as what you see at Floyd Bennett Field, is part of our HERRC system. So, what we're saying to the overwhelming number of those who come here to take the next step in their American dream, we're saying that we know you're doing the right thing, but that numerical minority that is being disruptive, we're sending a very clear message to them that there are rules that everyone must follow, and it starts with the curfew, and it starts with not in any way impeding on the safety of the communities that they're looking in.

Host: Mayor, everybody, you know, breathed a nice sigh of relief when you heard you were cutting back on those cuts for the FDNY and the Police Department and sanitation and education. When you bring the budget proposal to the City Council, what are one or two of the items you're expecting them to come back at you with?

Mayor Adams: Well, all of them are concerned about our libraries. We know that libraries are great equalizers. And we told the libraries, the three library systems, to look into where you believe you can find cost efficiencies, as everyone else.

And some of that calls for them, I hope they look into their endowment. Some have over a billion dollars in their endowment. Let's share the wealth. Let's find ways of helping all New Yorkers navigate through this crisis that we're facing.

And listen, the city councilwoman, the Speaker Adrienne Adams has been a partner in previous budgets. She knows how difficult this is. We're going to sit down, we're going to negotiate, and we're going to land this plane together because the law requires us to do so.

But we're going to stay focused on the people of the city and making sure the public spaces are clean and safe and make sure that public safety is at the cornerstone of our city because that's our prosperity in doing so.

And continue the success that we have witnessed in over two years. Having her as a partner, in two years, we have been able to turn around this city and put it on the pathway of prosperity and not what we inherited in January 1st, 2022.

Host: The public going to hear about all these good things, mayor, State of the City address next Wednesday. Before you go, mayor, are you still working that plant‑based diet, or no?

Mayor Adams: [Laughter.] Yes, I am feeling good as well. You know, that's how many able to get up bright and early to make sure I hop on with 1010 WINS, all news, all the time.

Host: Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor, thank you very much. Continued success, and glad to see some things aren't as bad as they seemed back in the fall, my friend.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.