New York: New York City has decided to cut overtime of the employees of some four departments responsible for the security of New York with an aim to mitigate the rising immigrant expenses.
The departments include New York Police Department, Fire Department, Sanitation Department, and Department of Corrections.
Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, has told the city’s four uniformed agencies — police, fire, sanitation and corrections — to come up with plans to slash their OT costs.
This plan will cover only two-thirds of the expected expenses of the migrants. The memo states that uniformed agencies must submit monthly reports to City Hall to review progress toward meeting overtime spending and reduction targets.
Now the Adams administration will issue a directive to implement the measure to cut overtime. The order comes after New York’s financial problems caused by the constant influx of immigrants.
The plan also calls for a freeze on travel outside of Washington, D.C., and a ban on purchases of new equipment and contracts.
Patrick Hendry, head of the Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, rejected the idea of cutting overtime costs as unjust, saying it would be impossible for the NYPD to significantly reduce overtime because We already have fewer police officers but we are still struggling to bring crime back to pre-2020 levels.
The New York Police Department’s overtime budget exceeded $700 million last year, drawing criticism for the high costs of police overtime.
On the other hand, a political affairs expert has termed this move as a big political ploy and said that Eric Adams wants to run for re-election in 2025 so it is a political game.
It is noted that Mayor Eric Adams announced a 15% cut in the budget of all city departments yesterday.
