Mamdani reveals his REAL top priority — and it has – Latest News
Mayor Zohran Mamdani simply revealed his actual top priority: getting reelected. At taxpayer expense.
Hence the outrageous salaries he says he’ll pay 15 (rely ’em, 15) comrades to supply agitprop at his newly created, tellingly named Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement.
Even as he ignores his day job: Just witness his lack of any critical proposals for closing town’s multibillion-dollar finances hole.
As The Post’s Craig McCarthy studies, Zo’s Office of Mass Reelection — er, Engagement — goals to emulate the Democratic Socialists of America model for mobilizing the public.
“The Soviet politburo called, they want their job announcement back,” snarked one Democratic strategist.
More From Post Editorial Board
Per metropolis job postings, the employees will construct a system of volunteers for campaigns by “co-governance” — which means, get activists to noisily demand precisely what you need to do anyway.
One itemizing particulars duties echoing a marketing campaign staffer’s: “strategizing, coordinating, and executing on engagement that reaches the masses of everyday New Yorkers.”
Call it a “Director of Re-Election Political Get Out the Vote Using Government Money,” one other Dem operative quipped.
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our every day Post Opinion publication!
Thanks for signing up!
The salaries are eye-popping: The workplace’s commissar, er, commissioner, Tascha Van Auken (beforehand the Mamdani marketing campaign’s discipline director), will rake in a whopping $250,000 — about the identical as Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Nine others will make between $100,000 and $150,000, with payroll totaling practically $2 million.
And that’s only for 15 salaries; who is aware of how many thousands and thousands more this “top priority” workplace will get?
(Then again, he plainly wants some critical comms help, if his cringe-worthy “Crunchwrap” video Tuesday is any indication.)
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s finances, which requires a mere $1.7 billion in financial savings, would nonetheless depart a $5.4 billion gap even when these financial savings really materialize.
And he’s gotten virtually nowhere getting even these tiny trims: Per Office of Management and Budget Director Sherif Soliman, he’s signed off on simply $200 million, or much less than 12%, of it.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission will cancel its Slack subscription, “saving nearly $20,000,” a press release boasts; the Sanitation Department will vacate “underutilized office space,” saving $194,000.
Are they critical? This is simply faux budget-cutting.
Instead, Hizzoner continues to be dreaming of a money tub from the state (on top of the $1.5 billion Hochul has already supplied) through tax hikes.
But Hochul has nixed these taxes as she runs for re-election, and Mamdani’s given up on his plan for (risk of) a 9.5% property-tax hike.
We get it, Mr. Mayor: It’s natural enough to need to give attention to one thing you understand you’re good at, like campaigning.
But town wants you to get your nostril to the grindstone and work on the job the voters employed you to do; should you don’t get cracking, all of the “mass engagement” on this planet gained’t prevent from their fury.
