Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council are locked in a budget battle over how to close a multibillion-dollar deficit, with starkly different visions emerging ahead of a June deadline.
Mamdani has proposed raising property taxes and tapping into the city’s reserves, while the council argues that re-estimates and spending cuts offer a more sustainable path forward.
What You Need To Know
New York City is facing a $5.4 billion budget gap ahead of a June deadline
The mayor proposes tax hikes and using reserves, while the council pushes spending cuts
Council members defend a $6 billion savings plan the mayor calls unrealistic
Both sides say services will be protected as negotiations continue
“You cannot build a sustainable city on one shots, dipping into rainy day funds or inventing new fees,” Councilman Phil Wong said.
“We are not cutting services, we have said that time and time again,” Councilwoman Linda Lee added.
The City Council is pushing back forcefully against Mamdani’s criticism of its $6 billion savings proposal, which he called “unrealistic.”
Local lawmakers responded publicly, with several posting on X and describing the mayor’s assessment as “disingenuous” and “deeply misleading.”
Councilwoman Virginia Maloney also took aim at the mayor’s remarks, saying, “I know math is hard.”
She told NY1 that the council examined the budget closely.
“Line item by line item, to try and identify savings and ensure that we don’t do two things: One, begin raiding the rainy-day fund — which really needs to be preserved for emergencies — and two: increase property taxes,” Maloney said.
The council’s plan, unveiled Wednesday, is intended as an alternative to what members describe as the mayor’s overly pessimistic approach, which includes potential property tax increases and drawing from city savings.
Mamdani rejected that characterization and doubled down on his criticism, referring to the proposal as “Speaker Julie Menin’s budget proposal.”
“If her proposal was adopted it would result in slashing billions of dollars for agency budgets and working New Yorker’s would pay the price,” Mamdani said.
Lee disputed the mayor’s claims, particularly around vacancy savings — funds tied to unfilled city positions.
“These are not made up numbers. They are numbers that are city full time employees that were in the budget and simply what happened is they didn’t fill the positions. All were saying simply is put that back in the budget and recognize that as a revenue,” Lee said.
Mamdani is expected to release his executive budget plan in the coming weeks. Council members say their financial team conducted a thorough review and stands by its analysis of the city’s finances.
“They raised some very valid items of savings, and I think we should look into it considerably rather them reject them as a whole,” said Wong.
City Hall must close a $5.4 billion budget gap in order to pass a balanced budget by the end of June.
“Let’s face it. We’re at the 25-yard line. This is still early on in the budget process. We have a long way to go,” Lee said.
“What we need is less than 5% of savings. We’re not broke, we just need to put our heads together and focus on how to better manage our agencies,” Maloney said.