New York’s massive spending on the migrant crisis — which state officials say has hit nearly $2 billion — is “unsustainable” and cannot continue forever, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday.
The figures include $1.5 billion that went directly to NYC to help the Big Apple manage the flood of immigrants that have arrived in the city in recent months.
It also includes about $358 million meant to cover the rental and service costs at Floyd Bennett Field, case management costs and disease screenings and immunizations, according to a Saturday memorandum from the state’s budget division.
“We’ve already spent far more than we anticipated,” Hochul told reporters Monday, noting that only about $1 billion was set aside for migrant funding in the state budget.
“Since we’re paying almost half of the cost of housing already, as well as the case management, legal services for helping people seek asylum, building up the infrastructure for jobs, we’re approaching $2 billion already this year,” the Democratic governor continued.
“So that’s $1 billion more than we anticipated. I’m just sending out the alert, as our budget director said, that that rate is unsustainable.”
The budget memo — sent by state budget division head Blake Washington and first obtained by Politico — reiterated that the migrant crisis is one of the biggest threats to the Empire State’s finances.
Especially given the $4.3 billion budget gap that the state must deal with before the close of the fiscal year, Washington wrote.
“With the continued influx of migrants, no promises of financial support from the Federal government, and no clear pathway to a wholesale policy change at the Federal level to address the situation, New York State can only shoulder this financial commitment for a limited duration without putting other areas of the State budget at risk,” Washington said.
Potential casualties of the unbridled spending may include aid to public schools, support for health delivery infrastructure and National Guard funding, he added.
The budget director suggested limiting assistance to what he called “targeted interventions,” such as legal services, case management and finding migrants jobs.
What should potentially be on the chopping block? More costly services like paying for indefinite hotel room stays, according to the memo.
“New York’s ability to pay for these programs is not unlimited,” it said.
Hochul seemed to agree Monday, saying, “We cannot continue to be paying for unlimited hotel rooms for people.”
The governor also said she supported Adams’ attempts to let people know that the city is filled to capacity.
Although there will be more state support next year, the governor said she wanted to manage expectations.
“I also have to manage an entire budget that funds education, health care, child care and other services that New Yorkers want to make sure are not cut,” Hochul said.
