Brian Lear on W.M. I see now we'll get an official New York City Council leadership reaction

and continue to take some of yours on the phones to Mayor Adams proposed 5% across the board budget cuts due to what he says are big

expenses for the asylum seekers arriving in such large numbers, revenue

shortfalls compared to predictions for this fiscal year and the end of federal pandemic era special aid money.

The big news that's been differentiating these proposed budget cuts compared to his other recent statements is that the NYPD

seems to be included with a reduction in the force from about 36,000 officers to around 29,000 of all those projections pan out as reported.

That would be the first time that the NYPD has dropped under 30,000 people since the 1990s.

That may change the politics of who gets

loudly upset about proposed cuts, but as the mayor said last week ahead of the

Thanksgiving week focus on New Yorkers Going Hungry, it's not just the NYPD.

Every agency in the city is going to be impacted, but we're looking at the service

providers and say how do we minimize those agencies like the, you know, delivery of food, the pantries, the other services that we know

moderate fixed income New Yorkers depend on it.

The mayor last week with us now, City Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Branen.

He was just reelected in a hotly contested election,

which we covered on the show against Republican Ari Kagan

from the 47th City Council District, which includes Bay Ridge, Coney Island, and parts of Bath Beach.

And listeners, before we talked to Justin Branen, just a little background,

Branen and City Council Speaker, Adrian Adams, released a joint statement reacting to the Mayor's

Plan cuts.

It says in part the administration's approach of reducing budgets of all agencies broadly through additional cuts in a hiring

freeze along with inflicting cuts on our libraries, Cuny, and cultural institutions

...