New figures released by New York City on Thursday showed that city taxpayers have spent $306 million on migrants since July 1, bringing the total spending on the ongoing migrant crisis to nearly $5.5 billion.
The figure, updated by the Adams administration to include spending since the start of the current fiscal year, is hundreds of millions of dollars more than the $5 billion price tag included in an earlier city tally first reported by The Post on Tuesday.
In addition to the expenditures made since July, refugee applicants Funding Tracker It also adjusted spending over the past two fiscal years from a total of $4.88 billion to about $5.2 billion, bringing the total for the duration of the crisis to $5.46 billion.
Spending since July includes $112 million for housing/shelter, $137 million for social services and supplies, $29 million for IT and administration, and $23 million for food and medical care.
$7 million in medical expenses.
Meanwhile, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said: The report was issued He said Thursday that the migrant crisis continues to strain New York’s finances.
“The city continues to shoulder the majority of the burden of the significant costs of assisting asylum seekers,” DiNapoli said.
DiNapoli said it’s strong tax revenues from business and tourism, more than anything, that have buoyed the city’s finances while it grapples with the migrant crisis after the pandemic.
“Higher than expected revenues in recent years have been a significant factor in the city’s ability to fund budget items and new programs, including significant costs of managing the influx of asylum seekers,” the auditors said at a meeting of the state Financial Control Committee on Thursday.
City officials estimate that the city will cover 69 percent of the costs of caring for migrants over the next few years, the state 30 percent and the federal government just 1 percent.
The border immigration crisis has become a hot-button issue in the ongoing White House race between Republican former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s Democratic replacement.
Gotham has helped and housed more than 212,000 migrants since the spring of 2022, but roughly 64,000 people remain in the city’s shelters and social service system.
Adam’s budget proposal projects spending $4.7 billion on immigrant support this year, $4 billion next year, $3 billion in 2027 and $850 million in 2028.
DiNapoli said there is evidence that spending rates for migrants would fall given the decline in migration from the southern border.
“The number of asylum seekers in the city’s custody has remained stable in recent months and is growing more slowly than the city had projected,” the auditor’s analysis said.
He also cited President Biden’s executive order to temporarily suspend the processing of asylum-seeking applications at the border, estimating that this and other measures could save New York $1.25 billion in costs for migrant care this year, assuming a cost of $353 per migrant household per day.
Treasury Secretary Adams told a meeting of the Budget Control Committee that by placing limits on the length of stay for individuals and families, the administration has been able to reduce the projected costs of immigration by 30 percent.
“We accomplished this by acting smart and making sure we had real programs in place, particularly a 30-day program for single adults. New Yorkers cannot tolerate people from anywhere in the world staying as long as they want on New Yorkers’ money. It doesn’t make sense and we’re not going to tolerate it,” the mayor said.
He also praised Gov. Kathy Hockle, who chairs the Fiscal Control Committee, for providing more than $3 billion in state grant funding to the city to cover the costs of providing shelter and other services for migrants, which has “significantly eased the strain on the Big Apple’s budget.”
