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Julie Menin’s budget plan is better than Mamdani’s – but could go much further

Cheers to Speaker Julie Menin for leading the City Council into drawing up a reasonably responsible budget, one that doesn’t require any tax hikes to fund excessive new spending.

That’s in stark contrast to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who’s practically demanding billions from someone, somewhere — and even had the gall to slam the council’s plan as “unrealistic” because it “refuses to address the deeper structural imbalance between the City and the State, or to increase taxes.”

That “imbalance” refers to his delusional belief that Albany should shower more cash on Gotham, even though the city’s wealthier than most of the state, because . . . socialism?

In a $127 billion budget — especially in New York City, which spends vastly more per-capita than any other US city, and where spending has grown faster than both inflation and actual tax receipts — it’s common sense that pinching a little here and firming things up a little there would result in significant savings.

And Menin’s green-eyeshades folks did just that — combing through the couch cushions for real, unlike the mayor’s video pretend-quest.

This is nothing revolutionary: Rather than cut back bloat, the council plan treats all “services” as “critical,” and so impossible to shrink.

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Menin wants Albany to cover the nearly $1 billion-a-year cost of compliance with the unfunded, NYC-only class-size mandate (a giveaway to the United Federation of Teachers).

That’s fine as far as it goes, but only moves the costs onto state taxpayers; better would be eliminating the absurd law in the first place, or at least stretching out the schedule.

Elsewhere, Menin notes that thousands of budgeted city positions are now unfilled, and counts the unspent salaries as savings.

Fine. But if we’ve been getting along without these new employees, why not eliminate the positions altogether?

No, says Menin: “The council believes these positions should be filled.”

Still, she’s sure putting the lie to Mamdani’s claims to be “efficient, with every single dollar being put to the best possible use.”

Plus, her quiet-but-firm rejection of his call for a 9%-plus hike in property taxes has led him to stop talking about the idea — though it’s still in his budget plan.

Bottom line: Menin understands that the city can’t afford to kill its golden goose — that Mamdani’s schemes would destroy New York’s tax base.

The mayor’s budget bumbling is just a ploy; the speaker’s plan shows Albany it doesn’t need to fall for his bluff.

New York is very lucky to have Menin leading the council: The last speaker, and most of her predecessors going back decades, wouldn’t dare face down a progressive push for poisonous tax hikes.

She understands that budgeting always means choosing how to spend limited resources; that may seem like “austerity” to nepo-baby Mamdani, but it’s how the taxpayers who actually cover the city’s bills have to live.

Time to learn how actual grownups live, Mr. Mayor.

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