Mayor Mamdani’s budget gamble

To deal with a challenging fiscal climate, the democratic socialist is pushing the city into risky fiscal territory.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, along with First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, left, and Sherif Soliman, right, the city's budget director, address reporters following a state budget hearing on Feb. 11, 2026. | Madina Touré/POLITICO

NEW YORK — The New York City budget team has a reputation as staid, inscrutable stewards of the municipal purse. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is changing that.

Faced with a challenging fiscal landscape, the young democratic socialist is tossing aside some of the office’s most reliable safety cushions — normally reserved for economic downturns or major emergencies — in the name of avoiding service cuts and shaking down New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

In doing so, he’s assuming risk in ways not seen in recent memory: Mamdani’s office has already planned to spend significant cash reserves. He is threatening to increase property taxes by enough to put the city closer to a constitutional limit. And most tellingly, the mayor is dispensing with conservative tax revenue forecasts — a departure from his predecessors that gives him more money on paper but upends a longstanding tradition that has functioned as a de facto safety net.

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