{"id":182691,"date":"2026-04-01T21:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182691\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:21:07","slug":"the-council-released-its-budget-rebuttal-mamdani-slammed-menin-personally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182691\/","title":{"rendered":"The council released its budget rebuttal. Mamdani slammed Menin personally."},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies slammed the City Council\u2019s budget plan Wednesday, zeroing in on one person. \u201cCouncil Speaker Julie Menin just released her budget proposal,\u201d he said in a video published online<\/a>. \u201cIf her proposal was adopted, it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, and working New Yorkers would pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the leaders of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani\u2019s political network, slammed Menin as a \u201cmillionaire\u201d and called her plan \u201cout of touch.\u201d The left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute followed up with an accusation<\/a> of \u201cfuzzy math.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a marked escalation in tension between the two city leaders that followed soon after the mayor poached<\/a> the City Council\u2019s top budget director. In her budget response, Menin apparently did something Mamdani cannot forgive: She is not joining his calls to raise taxes on the wealthy to address the city\u2019s budget shortfall. Mamdani\u2019s attacks on Menin over the budget stood in stark contrast from how he has navigated budget disagreements with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who he is careful not to anger.<\/p>\n

Both Mamdani, the lefty mayor, and Menin, the Upper East Side moderate who he didn\u2019t want to be speaker, have said that they don\u2019t want to partake in the kinds of antics and games that have come to characterize the city\u2019s \u201cbudget dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

But based on statements from each leader on Wednesday, they may be gearing up for more of a budget brawl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Menin did not respond directly to Mamdani\u2019s accusations in a video where she explained<\/a> the council\u2019s proposal. But the City Council\u2019s X account called the mayor\u2019s claims \u201cuntrue.\u201d \u201cIt may be April Fools\u2019 Day, but the Council wasn’t kidding when we said NO CUTS to any services or staff,\u201d the account, typically managed by the speaker\u2019s office, posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The council budget response to the mayor\u2019s preliminary budget plan is an annual part of the city budget process, required by law. The council on Wednesday claimed the city can close its $5.4 billion budget gap over fiscal years 2026 (ending June 30) and 2027, without raising taxes on the wealthy, raising property taxes, digging into reserves or cutting services. It also said it was possible to add $1.1 billion in additional council spending priorities. The proposal, explained in some detail in a 56-page brief,<\/a> presented solutions like reestimated debt service costs ($240 million) and auditing education department contracts ($175 million this year and next).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the council is pushing in the right direction because we agree that the city should be closing the budget gap with savings and protecting reserves,\u201d said Andrew Rein, president of the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission. \u201cWe need as many ideas as possible \u2026 so that the city can be shrinking spending without cutting critical services.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the largest areas of savings is $860 million that the council says the city over-budgeted for salaries and wages in the current fiscal year. The mayor\u2019s office has disputed that that funding is unspent, with one Office of Management and Budget official telling Politico<\/a> a few weeks ago that some of that money is being used to pay for costs like part-time teaching and if removed would amount to cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Budget cuts, as former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 previous attempts at across-the-board savings demonstrated, can be political poison, and neither Mamdani nor Menin wants that association.<\/p>\n

In a separate, harsh written statement<\/a> shortly after Menin released her plan, Mamdani called the council\u2019s response \u201cunrealistic.\u201d He singled her out, though she was joined by Finance Committee Chair Linda Lee and Finance Division Director Nathan Toth to present it Wednesday. \u201cSpeaker Julie Menin\u2019s preliminary budget proposal would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, which would force the City to cut services. Double counting previously identified savings, overestimating revenues, and exaggerating debt service savings does nothing to close a deficit,\u201d Mamdani\u2019s statement read. It also criticized Menin for not joining his calls for Albany to increase taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC DSA co-chairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo went a bit farther: \u201cMenin\u2019s plan is DOGE-lite for New York City. Why does she think she can fill a $5.4 billion gap through \u2018savings\u2019 alone?\u201d Gordillo said. \u201cWorking-class people will pay\u2013just so millionaires like her don\u2019t have to contribute to our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely believe in progressive taxation,\u201d Menin said Wednesday, when asked about whether Albany needs to raise taxes to deliver new revenue to New York City. But she suggested that the proposed tax hike would prompt wealthy taxpayers to move elsewhere. \u201cI think we don\u2019t want a situation where we\u2019re pitting states against each other, which is basically what that would do.\u201d Menin said repeatedly that Albany should look at \u201call options\u201d on the table, however.<\/p>\n

Council members rallied behind the body\u2019s proposal, including multiple members<\/a> of Menin\u2019s<\/a> leadership<\/a> team<\/a> and other members<\/a> who contested Mamdani\u2019s characterization that the proposal would amount to cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deeply misleading and potentially harmful!\u201d Council Member Kevin Riley wrote on X<\/a>, responding to Mamdani\u2019s video. \u201cI thought these four years were going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he\u2019s singling out the speaker on this is actually disrespectful to the council members who helped inform the budget response,\u201d another council member told City & State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Menin allies questioning Mamdani\u2019s messaging on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m surprised the mayor came out as hard as he did,\u201d one member of the council\u2019s Progressive Caucus said. \u201cIt puts some of us in a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies slammed the City Council\u2019s budget plan Wednesday, zeroing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7739,9,24,1057,55,54,2327,56,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-182691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-council","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-news-politics","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182691","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=182691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}