City Department of Social Services (DSS) boss Molly Wasow Park refuted a new analysis from the city Independent Budget Office (IBO) finding Mayor Eric Adams’ administration’s migrant crisis cost estimate of $4.3 billion is overblown, during a Monday City Council hearing examining her agency’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.
The analysis estimates the cost of sheltering and providing for an ever-rising number of newly arrived migrants will reach between $2.7 billion and $3.7 billion over this fiscal year and the next — meaning it could be as much as $1.6 billion lower than the administration’s $4.3 billion prediction. City Hall cited the sheer cost of the asylum seeker influx as a reason for making billions of dollars in cuts to city agency spending plans in the mayor’s Fiscal Year 2024 executive budget released last month.
