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Stop! Mamdani’s plan is to tax New York INTO deep trouble

New York City government has plenty of revenue, with zero need for any of the tax hikes Mayor Zohran Mamdani is demanding; it could even pay for some of his ambitious plans — it just needs to be cut elsewhere: This is what budgeting means.

The budget was an already fat $77 billion in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s last year; it’s now above $120 billion — up vastly more than inflation.

Handed a prosperous local economy, Mayor Bill de Blasio went spend-crazy — then went hog-wild as the feds handed out tens of billions of “free money” during Covid.

Coming out of the pandemic, then getting hit by the Biden migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams only found passing efficiencies even as the left-dominated City Council pushed new spending programs and the Legislature dumped new unfunded mandates on the city such as the ridiculous “class-size” law.

And the new mayor only wants to add fresh spending — for all his demonization of Adams, he won’t point to a dime he’d cut of his predecessor’s programs (except, of course, from the NYPD).

Moody’s sounded the alarm Wednesday: The debt-rating giant changed the city’s credit outlook from “stable” to “negative” — a warning that the city’s headed toward a lower credit rating, and thus higher borrowing costs.

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“The negative outlook reflects the emergence of sizable and persistent projected budget gaps that signal underlying structural imbalance and reduced financial flexibility,” Moody’s warned — a mess City Hall faces “despite New York City’s still favorable economic conditions.”

That is: The private sector’s doing fine, but the public sector shows not a hint of restraint. Just an outrageous appetite.

We can’t tax our way out of trouble, but we sure can tax our way into trouble.

The private sector’s not guaranteed to keep growing: Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York, warns that the mayor’s tax-and-spend plans will push the “very, very fragile” local economy to the brink.

City Comptroller Mark Levine reports that the mayor’s plans risk major trouble if the economy slows or other revenues (from Albany or Washington) falter.

He points to one obvious cut: The council’s Adams-era insistence on burning $2.5 billion this year on housing vouchers that drive up market-rate costs for those who don’t get them; that program may balloon to $3.4 billion if not reversed.

Another obvious place to trim: Demand relief from the class-size mandate, which imposes up to $1.9 billion in needless costs (because class sizes are already small) in the next year and likely more than $10 billion in the longer run.

The Department of Education has plenty more fat: It’s now spending well over $40,000 per student.

New York spends billions on social services that no other US city provides: Start cutting with Homeless Services, which soared from $102 million in Fiscal Year 2019 to $456 million now — when the migrant crisis is done.

The entire state budget of Florida, population 24 million, is smaller than New York City’s for 8.5 million people: We. Have. Room. To. Cut.

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