POLITICS: Why Mayor Adams’ latest NYC budget is in far worse shape than it appears

Mayor Adams, who’s facing a tough reelection fight, plainly hopes the budget he rolled out Thursday will score him points for “investing” in programs New Yorkers want while maintaining diligent fiscal stewardship.

Which, all too naturally, led to a plan that continues the city’s longtime practice of overspending while lowballing actual costs.

Just look at its nominal $114.5 billion price tag. On quick glance, New Yorkers might think, Nice! The mayor held bottom-line growth to just $2 billion, or 1.8%, more than last year’s enacted budget.

Indeed, the $114.5 billion is actually $2 billion less than he says City Hall will have spent when this fiscal year ends June 30 — but those figures aren’t real.

As Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein warns, “Next year’s spending plan does not reflect reality”: It’s “short nearly $4 billion needed to fund existing services.”

And even this year’s revised budget is $700 million in the hole, mostly due to overtime.

“Adjusted for underbudgeting and pre-payments, city-funded spending will grow 6.7% in fiscal year 2025 and 5% in fiscal year 2026,” flags Rein. That’s way faster than inflation.

And it doesn’t even count the extra funding drunken-sailor City Council members are sure to demand, unexpected cuts from state and Washington or a slower-than-anticipated economy.

Similarly, while Adams’ projected future shortfalls — $4.2 billion in 2027, $5.4 billion in 2028 and $5.1 billion in 2029 — are scary enough, the actual gaps are at least 40% worse, totaling $25 billion or more.

So the city will have to either cut back on services, scrape money from other areas or pray that unexpected cash magically appears from a supercharged economy, the state or the feds.

Yes, Adams has found some modest savings at a few agencies. But the city has taxed and spent far too much for far too long — and its budgeting, to be blunt, is a mess.

As Rein puts it, “Hard choices and better management are needed to improve New Yorkers’ quality of life.”

Make no mistake: The council, which must OK the plan, is even more guilty.

But if City Hall can’t even present an honest accounting of how it spends taxpayer money, let alone one that tries to keep the tab low, why should New Yorkers expect it to run the city properly?