{"id":182798,"date":"2026-04-01T22:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182798\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T22:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:34:16","slug":"council-calls-foul-over-mamdanis-budget-pushes-own-spending-plan-with-no-tax-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182798\/","title":{"rendered":"Council calls foul over Mamdani’s budget \u2014 pushes own spending plan with no tax hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council released a $127 billion alternative budget plan Wednesday<\/a> that doesn\u2019t raise property taxes, dip into reserves or cut services to make ends meet \u2014 a slap-down for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Instead, the council\u2019s plan claimed that Mamdani\u2019s projected $6 billion budget shortfall could be resolved<\/a> by a mix of re-estimated revenues, savings and creative new funding sources \u2014 such as renting out the Brooklyn Bridge\u2019s hidden rooms.<\/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 Menin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"NewHow The Post told the story of Mamdani\u2019s threatened hike to property taxes. New York Post<\/p>\n

\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

The new proposal officially puts Menin\u2019s City Council on a collision course with Mamdani as he pushes a \u201ctax the rich\u201d scheme to shore up the city\u2019s shaky finances.<\/p>\n

The fresh plan also represents a budgetary disconnect between City Hall and the City Council far deeper than between former Mayor Eric Adams and his no-relation counterpart ex-Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who squabbled over revenue but seldom over actual costs.<\/p>\n

Democratic strategist Chris Sosa, a Mamdani ally, said the socialist mayor and Menin are simply not aligned.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani and Speaker Menin have fundamentally different approaches to politics that exist beyond ideology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"NewThe New York City Council has released an alternative $127 billion budget plan \u2014 that aims to close gaps without Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s threatened tax hikes. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cMenin is cautious and builds a lot of risk mitigation into her legislative approach, which includes the budget. That approach is read by the left as protection of a broken status quo. Of a broken status quo that privileges the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s plan outlined a mind-boggling $5.4 billion deficit that included $1.1 billion in council-backed programs.<\/p>\n

Absent Albany\u2019s approval to soak the rich, Mamdani\u2019s plan to close the gap banked on $3.7 billion from a proposed property tax increase and $1.2 billion in reserve draw-downs to balance the books.<\/p>\n

But Menin and her council chums argued in their proposal that Mamdani\u2019s plan often overestimated potential expenses, such as how much the state\u2019s payroll mobility tax will cost the city.<\/p>\n

Correcting that mistake would save $44 million, the council argued.<\/p>\n

The council members contended that instead of tax hikes or reserve use, they found $3.5 billion in revised revenue and spending estimates \u2014 such as recognizing higher-than-expected construction permit income and underspending on vacant city positions \u2014 along with $2 billion in agency efficiencies.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s plan also identified $529 million in \u201crevenue enhancements,\u2019\u2019 such as renting secret rooms in the Brooklyn Bridge, hiking marina boat parking rates on yachts and peddling city parks as food courts.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s proposal would also restore funding for programs Mamdani stiffed in his preliminary budgeting, including libraries, cultural institutions, CUNY initiatives and legal services for housing and domestic violence victims.<\/p>\n

The plan also pushed new investments such expanding Fair Fares to fully subsidize transit for low-income New Yorkers and boosting college savings accounts for public-school students.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers grappling with an affordability crisis should not see a decline in the quality of the services they receive due to a budget dance, and the City Council is committed to fighting to ensure residents receive the investments they deserve,\u201d said council finance Chairwoman Linda Lee.<\/p>\n

Mamdani shot back against Menin\u2019s proposal with one of his signature slick videos.<\/p>\n

He brushed aside the savings and instead slammed Menin for not groveling for state money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speaker\u2019s $6 billion proposal (in savings) asks Albany for one thing: more time to reduce class size,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy position: Tax the Rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor also argued the plan would slash billions of dollars from city agencies, forcing service cuts \u2014 a contention that rankled many council members.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s fellow travelers with the city\u2019s Democratic Socialists of America chapter slammed Menin online \u2014 even before she released the details of the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisappointed to see the narrative around \u2018cuts\u2019 being pushed,\u201d Councilman Kevin Riley (D-Bronx) fired back on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn truth, the Council is fighting to maintain and strengthen critical services across the city. Narratives like this are extremely dangerous to that process!\u201d<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s official X account posted,\u201cIt may be April Fools\u2019 Day, but the Council wasn\u2019t kidding when we said NO CUTS to any services or staff.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s budget negotiations will intensify after Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers finalize the state\u2019s spending plan \u2014 whenever that is. State lawmakers passed a deadline extension <\/a>Tuesday to give them until April 7 to release a plan.<\/p>\n

The state budget was due April 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council released a $127 billion alternative budget plan Wednesday that doesn\u2019t raise property taxes, dip into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14927,301,19077,57,9,24,55,54,56,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-182798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-city-budget","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-julie-menin","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182798","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=182798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}