“It’s the biggest program in the budget and it’s growing faster than any other,” said Patrick Orecki, an analyst with the Citizens Budget Commission of New York, which monitors government finances.

Reinvent Albany, the Citizens Budget Commission and the Empire Center for Public Policy all urged the governor last month to sign legislation making state agencies publish within 30 days information on contracts issued under such emergency rules, as well as any contracts issued without a review by the state comptroller.

Rein said, for example, that the use of temporary resources to support ongoing spending, masks a structural budget gap of $17 billion.

“It’s great they are reducing migrant spending and revenues are strong,” said Andrew Rein, head of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog.

And the Citizens Budget Commission reports he’s cut the number of budgeted positions by nearly 10,000.

Andrew Rein, chairman of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal organization, said it would be difficult for them to discuss and review the full impact of the two budgets at the same time.

Just 20 percent of the latest round of budget cuts from Adams’ administration will directly result in reduced services, per an analysis out today from the Citizens Budget Commission. The other 80 percent are more like paper cuts, explained by reestimates, funding shifts and cutting unfilled roles.

Meanwhile, the gap between what the buildings bring in and what it costs to operate them keeps widening, in part because many residents withheld rent during the pandemic and not all have started paying it again.

“Both of them coming at the same time … makes a conversation and examination of their full impact, at least in the short run, much harder,” said Andrew Rein, head of the Citizens Budget Commission. “You want to give each the time and the focus because they are so important.”

A Citizens Budget Commission analysis of the 2022 ACS found that of 3.68 million housing units in New York City, only 2.5 percent were available for rent or sale, resulting in a historically low vacancy rate not seen in decades.

While the expected deficit in next year’s budget has been reduced to $4.5 billion from $9 billion, the Citizens Budget Commission said the state faces deficits that total $19 billion over the next three years.

“New York leads the nation in population loss and state action is needed to change this course,” said Patrick Orecki of the independent Citizens Budget Commission.