Budget cuts in New York could affect sanitation and school programs
Mayor Eric Adams’ call for 5% cuts across New York City departments could bring a host of important municipal services to a halt, including trash collection, after-school programs and police officers, experts told The Post.
New Yorkers will see a decline in many city-supported services, including additional sanitation routes, Chris Coffey, CEO of Tusk Strategies and a former adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, told The Post.
“It just depends on how creative each commissioner is in terms of how they can do more with less,” Coffey said, noting that OT hours for police officers could be put to the test.
Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, said the latest round of cuts proposed by Adams would be a “doomsday scenario” for the city’s schools.
A reduction in funding would mean “a loss of after-school programs and larger class sizes – they would have to cut everything,” Haimson said.
Andrew Ansbro, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the fire department was already so stretched that the only cuts he could imagine would be “gutting everything at headquarters and all fire protection, recruiting efforts and everything else” except the base base be. File.
“You couldn’t close businesses or not provide ambulances because we’re already understaffed and overworked,” he said. “I really don’t know where the money is going to come from.”
Oren Barzilay, president of the local union representing 4,000 EMS workers and fire inspectors, warned that they were already underfunded and cuts would have “deadly consequences.”
“There are times when the public has to wait half an hour to an hour for an ambulance, if not longer,” he said.
A longtime Brooklyn police officer was astonished by the mayor’s orders, saying any cuts to the NYPD budget would lead to fewer police officers through staff cuts and defunding for equipment.
“They would cut the budget for cars and I don’t know how they could do that because there aren’t enough cars right now,” he said.
Democratic strategist George Arzt, a former spokesman for Mayor Ed Koch, said New Yorkers would almost certainly see libraries open for fewer hours or days, and park maintenance services would also be reduced.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman.
