Enough with Mamdani’s ‘mystery math’ budget games – Latest News
Moody’s downgraded New York City’s bond outlook from steady to “negative” Wednesday, whereas Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s budget chief went AWOL moderately than reply City Council questions in regards to the mayor’s mystery-math budget.
“New York City is spending more money than it takes in,” metropolis Comptroller Mark Levine warned the council Finance Committee; he says metropolis bills are growing sooner than revenues, pushing the budget hole to almost $7.4 billion — $2 billion more than Mamdani claimed in his January budget plan.
He pointed to out-of-control outlays such because the FHEP housing voucher program, up 940% since 2019 to $2.5 billion.
The metropolis Independent Budget Office says the vouchers might blow an added $3.4 billion gap within the budget.
Mamdani budget chief Sherif Soliman begged off on explaining any of this, supposedly as a result of it’s Ramadan — which is ridiculous: Plenty of different Muslims handle to work whereas fasting.
Council Speaker Julie Menin and Finance Committee Chair Linda Lee cite numbers debunking any need to raid the town’s “rainy fund” (meant for a fiscal emergency) to close the hole, as Mamdani needs; they level to $1.7 billion from cost-cutting and higher-than-predicted tax income, for starters.
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Yet Soliman gained’t show up for days or even weeks to clarify the mayor’s math on the contrary.
The council’s fairly united in opposition to Mamdani’s call to hike property taxes almost 10% if Gov. Kathy Hochul refuses to present him the opposite tax hikes he’d moderately should fund his bloated $127 billion spending plan.
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The mayor’s acknowledged intent to spend more regardless of the gaps, mixed with his spastic discuss how to fund it, straight clarify the Moody’s downgrade.
Mamdani’s strategy is to blackmail Albany for a tax increase, moderately than doing any affordable value costing.
Menin and Lee dropped a brutal touch upon the Moody’s downgrade, demanding a “responsible path forward” together with “long-term savings and fiscal discipline needed to protect New York City’s financial stability.”
It’s been a long time since a mayor was markedly more reckless than the City Council; buckle up, New York.
