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Neither President Biden nor Gov. Kathy Hochul have offered to pick up New York City’s $600 million tab for housing the migrants who’ve flooded in from the southern border — because “no one wanted to talk about” it during “campaign season,” Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.

Asked by The Post whether he had gone to the governor about declaring a state of emergency to make federal funding more easy to obtain, Adams said, “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.”

Both Biden, as the national leader of the Democrats, and Hochul, as state leader, were fighting for survival ahead of the midterm elections, with Hochul barely beating out Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

Adams noted that he was the only one who kept talking about the migrant crisis during the election season and noted, “We’re still fighting for reimbursement.”

“We think that the campaign season is over, it’s time for people to focus on this issue, we need to be reimbursed,” he said during an unrelated news conference at City Hall..

“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.”


  Mayor Eric Adams said “campaign season” kept New York from getting aid for migrants. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post Mayor Eric Adams said “campaign season” kept New York from getting aid for migrants. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post

Adams made the remarks as he was pressed on his administration’s handling of the migrant crisis following a new report from the Independent Budget Office that put the price tag for housing the 17,500 people in the shelter system at $596 million.

Adams stopped short, though, of accusing Hochul of intentionally putting the issue on the back-burner to help shield her flagging campaign.

But despite saying Hochul had been too busy to focus on the matter, Adams then called her a “real partner” on the issue.

“The governor has been 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,” he added. “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.'”


  The mayor has been constantly pressed about NYC’s ongoing migrant crisis. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images The mayor has been constantly pressed about NYC’s ongoing migrant crisis. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

City Hall is seeking upwards of $500 million in assistance from the federal government — however, officials have only formally filed the necessary paperwork to recoup $4.8 million of the costs so far, sources have said. Asked if the city has since asked for more, Adams would not answer.

Adams simply responded “need to make it happen” when asked about Hochul potentially declaring a state emergency to speed up the city’s request for federal aid, but would not confirm if he had specifically sought the action.

City Hall did not immediately respond to questions seeking additional information about what aid could become available if Hochul made such a declaration to the feds.

A statement from Hochul’s office sidestepped the issue.

“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,” said Hochul press secretary Hazel Crampton-Hays. “We continue to support the City’s requests for federal assistance.”

The IBO based its $596 million estimate off of the likely cost of housing the 17,500 migrants — mainly asylum seekers from Venezuela — in city-funded homeless shelters, hotel rooms leased to provide emergency space and intake centers.

It was not able to provide a separate figure for how much it would cost City Hall to provide them with social services beyond housing, saying the “the number of people arriving continues to evolve.”


  Adams mentioned that Kathy Hochul has been a “real partner” when it comes to the crisis. Matthew McDermott Adams mentioned that Kathy Hochul has been a “real partner” when it comes to the crisis. Matthew McDermott

Those in shelter account for roughly three quarters of the 23,000 recent arrivals from the southern border — many fleeing from the violence and economic collapse in chaos-plagued Venezuela.

Much of the criticism has been focused on Adams’ decision to build tent cities to provide processing services and temporary barracks-style shelter for the asylum seekers after the crush overwhelmed the city shelter system’s intake facilities.

Meanwhile, Adams at the same press conference defended the largely too-late tent city plan as an essential test of New York’s readiness for emergencies.

“I am just really baffled by those that don’t realize the successful execution of a plan,” Adams told reporters at a press conference following an unrelated event at City Hall.

“We executed a plan,” he added. “Part of the plan was to be prepared… having the HERRC [tent city] on Randall’s Island.”

Officials first tried to open one facility out in Orchard Beach, but were forced to abandon the plan after building but never opening the temporary tent structures due to flooding corners, which they had initially downplayed.

Adams then relocated the facility to Randall’s Island, where it was only ever lightly used — opening just as Biden decided to stem the flow of Venezuelans into the country while they await their asylum claims to be adjudicated — and is now scheduled to close down this week.

City Hall has refused to provide a full accounting of the costs — but Office of Emergency Management commissioner Zach Iscol disclosed that tearing down the facility at Orchard Beach had cost $325,000 and that relocating it to Randall’s had cost another $325,000.

Politicians from Staten Island — including Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli, a Republican — requested the IBO perform the analysis after City Hall refused for weeks to provide a tally of the costs incurred so far.

IBO’s analysis came just a day after the mayor lowered his own public estimates for the cost of the crisis down from the $1 billion tally he cited when he declared a city emergency over the migrant issue in October.

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