New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city's $600 million tab for housing migrants sent from the southern border is still outstanding because "no one wanted to talk about" it during "campaign season."
According to Adams, neither President Joe Biden nor New York Gov. Kathy Hochul offered to reimburse the city for the cost of providing aid to the asylum seekers.
"I talked about funding in the midst of the campaign season, but it seemed like people would be more focused on running around from one location to the next," Adams told the New York Post.
Hochul, state leader of the Democrats, was locked in an unexpectedly tight race with Republican challenger Lee Zeldin before squeaking out a victory.
Noting that the city is "still fighting for reimbursement," Adams said party leaders need to address the migrant crisis.
"We think that the campaign season is over, it's time for people to focus on this issue, we need to be reimbursed," Adams said during an unrelated news conference at city hall, according to the Post.
"We spent a great deal of money for a national problem and we're looking for reimbursement and assistance from the state and the federal government."
A new report from the Independent Budget Office put the cost of housing the 23,800 migrants in the city's shelter system at $596 million.
Though he said Hochul had been too wrapped up in her campaign to focus on the issue, Adams called her a "real partner."
"She sat in the room with me, with the president, when the president came here to respond to the hurricane in Puerto Rico and in the Dominican Republic," Adams said. "The governor was extremely vociferous around that, 'We need to have a real solution at the border.' And that, 'We need to get funding here.'"
Sources told the Post that city hall is seeking more than $500 million in federal funding but officials have thus far only filed paperwork to recoup $4.8 million.
Adams declined to answer when asked if the city has since requested more assistance.
Hochul's office skirted the issue in a statement.
"We have been coordinating closely with the City to help address the immediate needs of asylum seekers coming to our state, including by providing transportation and deploying the National Guard to support the City's efforts," Hochul press secretary Hazel Crampton-Hays said. "We continue to support the City's requests for federal assistance."
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