If City Council members continue to advocate for “free” items for migrants, they should at least be willing to contribute to the costs.
Hizzoner told The Post that he had requested the council to “voluntarily” utilize half of its $563 million in “discretionary dollars” to pay for the items members are requesting. This prompted politicians and charitable groups that benefit from their pork to throw tantrums last week.
“I often hear from my council members that we need to give away more free items [to migrants]. This stuff is expensive!” grumbled Adams. He noted that some lawmakers want “free” cellphones, Metrocards, etc. for the newcomers, despite the fact that “ordinary New Yorkers” do not receive such perks. “I will not steal from taxpayers to go above and beyond what we’ve been doing” for migrants.
Yet councilmembers continue to live in a world of fiction. Speaker Adrienne Adams maintained that it is “our job” to offer migrants with “services, resources, and the tools to construct safe and dignified lives.” So long as someone else pays, she could very well add: She encourages the mayor to seek elsewhere, such as “corporations and large organizations that aren’t paying what they owe,” because she refuses to remove the “lifeline” to the nonprofits her members support financially.
Obviously, City Hall must collect every dollar owing and spend monies prudently, but politicians cannot expect to campaign for unending “free” items that, as the mayor points out, “ordinary New Yorkers” do not receive for free. That is simply ridiculous. Especially (as he also cautions) because the city is facing a severe “financial catastrophe,” with billions of red ink anticipated over the next few years.
Moreover, Mayor Adams is not to blame for the influx of newcomers straining Gotham’s finances. It is Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat and the vice president of the United States. And the initial step in resolving the city’s fiscal problems is to convince him to quit digging the hole deeper.
»NYC Council members who want ‘free’ items for migrants SHOULD contribute«