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Q&A
State funding allocation and reimbursement for asylum seeker response
1:12:26
·
123 sec
Council Member Ayala questions Director Jiha about the discrepancy between the state's allocated funds for asylum seeker response and the amount drawn down by the city. Jiha explains the complexities of the funding and reimbursement process.
- The governor's office claims to have allocated $4.3 billion over two years, but the city has only drawn down $1.6 billion
- Jiha clarifies that not all $4.3 billion was given directly to the city; about $2.6 billion was allocated directly
- The reimbursement process is described as cumbersome, requiring the city to submit $3 billion in paid invoices to claim $1 billion in reimbursement
- The state has advanced about $1.25 billion to date out of the $2.06 billion allocated
Diana I. Ayala
1:12:26
The governor's office obviously has indicated that the state has already allocated 4,300,000,000.0 over the past two years for the city's asylum seeker response efforts.
1:12:34
One of the reasons that she cites for not allocating additional funding is that the city has only drawn down 1,600,000,000.0 of the funds that were allocated.
1:12:41
Can you tell us how much of the 4,300,000,000.0 from the state has the city spent to date and how much has been submitted for reimbursement?
Jacques Jiha
1:12:49
Okay.
1:12:50
As I said, this is an excuse to be quite honest with you because the first billion dollars that the state allocated for us, it was so cumbersome to basically get for us to put the claims in, because don't forget they only funded one third.
1:13:10
So therefore for that $1,000,000,000, we had to put in $3,000,000,000 of paid invoices.
1:13:16
So it takes time to get $3,000,000,000 for you to get a billion dollars of good claims.
1:13:23
The process was so bad that they still changed it the following year and they started giving us advances.
1:13:32
So we, I believe, how much we have claimed so far, they advanced us about $1,250,000,000 to date of the $2,060,000,000.
1:13:48
And for the fundings that was committed by New York State for the landlords, Floyd Benedict, and Quidmore, we're in the process of submitting claims and awaiting approval from New York State on the execution of contract and claiming plans that we submitted to the state.
1:14:07
So it is, as I said, it's purely excuse.
1:14:10
It's a process because, you know, and it's not $4,300,000,000 that was given directly to the city.
1:14:17
I believe it's about, like, $2,600,000,000 that was given to the city directly.
1:14:22
Everything else was for other costs that the state was paying for other things that in terms of their
Gale A. Brewer
1:14:29
own So