Hochul Opens New Yorkers’ Wallets to Bail Out Mamdani
Democrats at work: The governor pretended to oppose tax hikes or state aid, but she eventually caved to the mayor’s demands for help paying for “free” stuff.
Fine, here’s $4 billion, an exasperated Kathy Hochul seems to have told Zohran Mamdani. New York City’s new socialist mayor threatened to raise taxes on the middle class to balance his exorbitant $124.7 billion budget, and it worked. The Empire State’s governor caved, handing her fellow Democrat a massive wad of state taxpayer cash.
Mamdani posted a slick message and video on X to celebrate. “When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit,” he claimed. “Today, I’m proud to say we brought it down to zero.”
Hot Air’s John Sexton wryly quips, “So how did he achieve this miracle? Well, he asked mom for money.”
No wonder adolescents of all ages love Mamdani!
Right off the bat, the mayor is being dishonest. His actual projected budget deficit this year was $5.4 billion, which means he got to $12 billion by, let’s say, selective accounting. Moreover, $4 billion doesn’t close a $12 billion gap, so what else did Mamdani do? In short, more fuzzy math. Did I mention that this year saw what Comptroller Mark Levine said were “record revenues”?
“This executive budget represents far more than a collection of numbers and investments,” Mamdani asserted. “It is evidence of a new era of government in our city. One that can balance both ambition and fiscal responsibility. One that can invest in housing, childcare, libraries, parks, schools, and climate resiliency. One that refuses to kick structural challenges down the road for someone else to have to solve later.”
Actually, Mamdani’s math relies on exactly the kick-the-can approach he decries. He’s delaying obligations and liabilities until a future year — and better yet, a future administration — can deal with the problem. He put off a plan to hire more teachers, delayed pension funding, and relied on taxes and savings that haven’t been approved yet. He’s also hiding the cost of some of his lavish programs, like free pre-K for three-year-olds. It’s what the New York Post editorial board called “one-time cash infusions, postponed payments and dubious calculations of future tax windfalls and theoretical savings.”
As Andrew Rein, president of the fiscally hawkish Citizens Budget Commission, put it, “We have to solve this budget gap today, and basically by stretching out pension payments, we’re asking people in the mid-2030s to solve the 2027 budget gap, and that’s simply not fair.” Of course, “fair” is one of Mamdani’s favorite words — he just means something very different.
“I see this as a win,” Mamdani boasted. “A win to ensure that the city is back on firm financial footing. It’s doing so by taxing the rich and by creating a fair relationship with Albany.”
Regarding that “fairness” and Albany, all the way back in February, Governor Hochul wasn’t keen on Mamdani’s tax plan and was noncommittal about any aid. But Hochul has an election to win in November, and, like it or not, she’s going to need New York City.
Now, she’s doing creative accounting of her own to cover the $4 billion. As The Daily Wire reports, “Hochul sourced the money from $2.2 billion in pension restructuring, $508 million from delaying smaller class sizes in public schools, $202 million offsetting recurring spending obligations, $150 million in additional state aid, and $361 million from actions not yet announced.”
New York already has $233 billion in debt, though it is not required by law to “balance the budget” as New York City is. So … kick the can!
To mix metaphors, she’s eager to put lipstick on a pig, so she proclaimed, “This is what a results-driven, responsible partnership looks like and I’m proud to work with Mayor Mamdani to deliver for working New Yorkers.”
Deliver what? Moldy pizza?
This budget, insists Mamdani, lays “the groundwork for long-term stability and fiscal health.” That’s a bald-faced lie. All it does it was socialists always do — promise “free” stuff today, paid for tomorrow by “the rich,” which eventually means everyone, including the next generation. Eventually, they run out of other people’s money, and the fiscal house of cards collapses.
The alternative here is for New Yorkers to stop electing socialists. Just a thought.
