{"id":182205,"date":"2026-04-01T14:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182205\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:52:08","slug":"nyc-council-budget-plan-averts-mamdani-property-tax-hike-avoids-tapping-reserves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182205\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council budget plan averts Mamdani property tax hike, avoids tapping reserves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council was slated to lay out a budget plan<\/a> Wednesday that closes New York\u2019s multi-billion dollar budget gap mostly by using money already in its\u2019 pockets without imposing property tax hikes or drawing down from the city\u2019s reserves.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani has proposed using the city\u2019s rainy day fund<\/a> and increasing the property tax rate to fill the estimated $5.4 billion budget hole. Although those proposals, in part, are applying pressure on the state to fork over more money, the plans have troubled the Council<\/a>, as well as ratings agencies and budget watchdogs.<\/p>\n

The Council\u2019s plan, shared ahead of its release Wednesday, outlines revised estimates and efficiencies it says would balance the books without the measures Mamdani is talking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot in good conscience fund the city\u2019s needs on the backs of homeowners or renters, by digging into emergency reserves, or by cutting essential programs,\u201d Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement. \u201cOur response offers a clear alternative to taking those steps, puts the City back on stable footing and invests directly in New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of that money \u2014 as much as $3.5 billion \u2014 is already in the city\u2019s pockets, according to the Council.<\/p>\n

According to their estimates, $80 million in Department of Buildings permits and late fee has not yet been accounted for, $42 million in Port Authority revenue that\u2019s not been included yet and $860 million has been budgeted for jobs that were not filled during the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The mayor has also talked about reducing some of the over 13,000 vacant positions in city agencies.<\/p>\n

The Council also proposed competitively bidding all Department of Education contacts and conducting an audit of that agency\u2019s non-essential contracts, which they said could $175 million over two fiscal years, as well as making debt service adjustments and tapping the city\u2019s \u201cGraveyard Trust,\u201d which collects older and harder-to-collect tax liens.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s property tax proposal, which he framed as a threat if the state didn\u2019t move on other revenue raisers, has mostly fallen flat, with the Council saying it\u2019s not an option and other lawmakers broadly rejecting the idea.<\/p>\n

His proposal to draw down from the city\u2019s reserves has raised concern at three bond rating agencies which downgraded the city\u2019s economic outlook, citing the plan to take from the city\u2019s saving despite being in a period of relative economic stability. Mamdani has dismissed those outlook changes as \u201cpremature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s budget process is playing out as the state, which has a good deal of influence over the city\u2019s finances, continues to negotiates its budget. The assembly is considering a tax hike on wealthy New Yorkers, though Gov. Hochul has been resistant so such a move.<\/p>\n

The state budget is technically due April 1, though state lawmakers have said not to expect a spending plan before Easter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council was slated to lay out a budget plan Wednesday that closes New York\u2019s multi-billion dollar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,3365,267,9,10,692,12,56,63,65,64,87],"class_list":{"0":"post-182205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}