Reamortization and issuing of pension obligation bonds could crush city’s finances

BY HARPER FREEMAN

Posted 4/10/26

Two pension reforms proposed by the City Council last week that would have the city reamortize its pension fund commitments and issue pension obligation bonds, while saving the city over  $1 billion this year, could burden the city with several billion dollars of obligations over the two decades and spell financial ruin, experts warn. 

As a response to the first preliminary budget of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tenure, the City Council released their own budget analysis that rectifies an estimated $6 billion budget gap without raising taxes on the state’s wealthy, raising property taxes or taking hundreds of millions from the city’s reserves, as Mamdani has pushed for. Instead, the Council identified $3.5 billion through revenue re-estimates and pushed the city to raise more funding through a series of unconventional means including raising boat docking fees and leasing rooms in the Brooklyn Bridge.  

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