NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams, facing mounting opposition over budget cuts and migrant spending, said Wednesday the city will cancel a third round of budget cuts set to take effect in April.
The announcement also relaxes a hiring freeze and other controls that limited spending on contracts.
It is the latest walk-back of budget cuts Adams announced last fall as he faced a multibillion-dollar hole — retractions that stand to weaken his bargaining position with unions and legislators, even as they may staunch further criticism over service reductions.
In unveiling the reversal, the mayor touted a Tuesday report from Moody’s that reaffirmed the city’s high credit rating, pointing to what the ratings agency deemed strong financial management.
“Despite facing a perfect fiscal storm that included a multi-billion-dollar budget gap driven by an asylum seeker crisis, the sunsetting of COVID-19 federal stimulus funding, and the cost of inherited outstanding labor costs, our administration was able to successfully make the strong fiscal decisions to navigate us to prosperity,” Adams said in a statement.
Throughout most of his tenure, Adams has painted a dour picture of the city’s finances and cast himself as the proverbial adult in the room willing to make tough choices — an........