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Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and New York City lawmakers went head-to-head Monday over how much money is in the Big Apple’s budget — with City Hall officials insisting the migrant crisis had blown a hole in the city’s finances, while council members claimed the administration’s cuts are unwarranted.

During an oversight hearing to address Hizzoner’s controversial 2024 financial plan unveiled last month, City Budget Director Jacques Jiha was forced to hit back at claims the administration was unnecessarily cutting citywide services for New Yorkers in an attempt to offset the surging cost of housing asylum seekers.

The Council, however, insisted some of the cuts weren’t required because the Big Apple would likely collect $1.2 billion more in taxes than City Hall had previously projected for fiscal year 2024.

In one particularly testy exchange during the hours-long hearing, lefty-Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler accused the administration of needlessly axing services to push for more state and federal funding to cope with the migrant crisis.

“The mayor is pursuing a shock and awe campaign to try and pursue the most outrageous cuts you can to try to shake the tree in Washington and Albany,” Restler said as he questioned the city’s budget director.

“We all know what you’re doing. We wish, instead, you’d work with us responsibly instead of imposing these deeply harmful cuts undermining the health, safety and wellbeing of our communities. The cuts are not necessary.”

Jiha — who heads the Office of Management and Budget — quickly fired back, accusing the Councilman of attacking his credibility.

“I did not come here to be insulted. If you have a question, ask a question, but the minute you attack my credibility it’s personal,” Jiha said.

Reps from powerful unions also claimed the Adams administration was exaggerating the cost of caring for the influx of migrants.

“We have record reserves, we’re running a massive surplus for this year and we are still here discussing cuts,” said Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers, whose union this year was awarded a pricy 5-year, 20% pay hike by Adams.

“Blaming these cuts on the asylum seekers is just repressible,” he added in his testimony to the council. “We all know this comes down to whether we believe the cost that the city is projecting for the asylum seekers themselves.”

The mayor faced widespread backlash when he unveiled his updated 2024 financial plan last month, after ordering all agencies to slash spending by an initial 5% to balance the city’s bulging $7.1 billion gap forecast for next year.

The City Council, however, said its own projections indicated the Big Apple will rake in over $1 billion more in taxes for fiscal year 2024 — potentially alleviating the need for some of his controversial citywide budget cuts.

Despite the Adams’ administration previously forecasting tax revenues of $71.7 billion for the next fiscal year, the Council said it expects the figure to come in at around the $72.9 billion mark — meaning there’ll be extra cash to avoid widespread cuts to services.

“We cannot close our budget gaps by simply cutting services,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams told the hearing as she accused City Hall of proposing cuts with a “cudgel” instead of a “scalpel”.

“Cutting every agency’s budget indiscriminately will disproportionately impact everyday New Yorkers,” she added. “We must protect vital services as a priority for our city and New Yorkers.”

The difference between the Council’s projected tax growth compared to that of the OMB is driven mainly by “stronger personal income, property, business and sales taxes,” according to an Economic and Tax Revenue Forecast report released by the Council.

Still, after unveiling last month’s proposed cuts to the budget, Adams has since ordered agencies to submit proposals for how they will trim spending by an additional 5% come January and warned another round of cost-cutting is likely by spring.

The NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation Department, however, will be exempt from the second round of belt-tightening measures amid outrage over concerns the cut could impact public safety, health and cleanliness.

Elsewhere during Monday’s hearing, multiple Councilmembers grilled the budget director on specific services that are set to take a hit due to the administration’s belt-tightening measures — including the Parks Department and libraries.

Parks Committee chairman Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) argued cuts to the Parks Department’s spending next year alone would drastically reduce clean-up services across the city because millions was being axed from a job training program.

“Our parks now, instead of being cleaned seven days a week, will be cleaned one day a week,” he said. “The 17,000 trash cans in parks across our city will be overflowing.”

“Given parks should be clean and safe and they contribute to public safety, why on earth would our Parks Department not be exempt from the cuts as you’ve exempted other agencies like NYPD and sanitation on the grounds of public safety and cleanliness?”

Jiha responded: “Because we’re facing a budget gap of $7 billion.”

Meanwhile, Councilman Chi Ossé (D-Brooklyn) questioned the administration’s rationale behind enforcing cuts to the “already small library budget.” As a result of the initial budget cuts, library services will no longer operate on Sundays from this coming weekend.

“The libraries choose how to allocate the city’s funding,” Jiha said in response.

“They could have made different choices. That’s a choice they made. We give them the funding and it is up to them what to choose. They can use the funding how they see fit.”

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