City Planning staffing was down 18% from what was allotted in the budget, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.

The Citizens Budget Commission was quick to praise the new PEG, which President Andrew Rein called “timely, if not overdue.”

The latest round of cuts was praised by the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, which said the city's budget gaps are expected to grow to $6.5 billion by fiscal year 2027, not including the cost of new labor contract costs, asylum-seeker expenses, federal fiscal cliffs, under-budgeted overtime and other costs.

“The focus is often to fill a shortfall this year and worry about everything else the next,” said Ana Champeny, vice president of research at the Citizens Budget Commission.

Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the fiscal watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, agreed that the mayor’s office tends to play it safe.

“This action is timely, if not overdue,” Andrew S. Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said in a statement. “Any delay increases the chance that the City barrels head first into the impending fiscal wall and has to make massive cuts in the future.”

Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, praised Adams for making another cut, calling the action “timely, if not overdue.” He estimates that the city faces a budget shortfall of more than $6 billion in 2027.

“Yes, revenues may be higher than OMB projects, and the Council is right that the City has in-year reserves that can be used,” said the commission’s president, Andrew Rein, in a statement. “But still, the reported budget gaps, collective bargaining costs, city and state fiscal cliffs and under-budgeted programs dwarf estimates of higher revenues.”

In part, both watchdog agencies are recommending the state stop using lump sum appropriations and to have more transparency when that money is being spent.

The Citizens Budget Commission, which has been warning of hidden costs in the city’s spending plan, said that the Council’s revenue projections are more optimistic than any other fiscal monitor.

Watchdog groups Reinvent Albany and Citizens Budget Commission today released a joint report, “Lump Sum Warning,” which found $14.8 billion in proposed lump sum pots in Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget, including $8 billion in COVID emergency pots that are not subject to review by the State Comptroller.

On Friday, the watchdog groups Reinvent Albany and Citizens Budget Commission released a report finding that there was $14.8 billion in proposed “lump sum” pots of money in Hochul’s budget proposal.