Opinion

Big Apple vs. Oranges: Why NYC pays more and gets far less than Florida

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is getting a painful lesson in fiscal reality

By Ken Girardin Fox News

Published March 4, 2026 5:00am EST

Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google

close

Video

'BAD START?': 'The Five' debates Zohran Mamdani's response to homeless crisis

'The Five' co-hosts discuss New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's response to the homeless population amid freezing temperatures.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani debuted his first budget last week, the $127 billion price tag sparked a range of inartful, and often inaccurate, comparisons on social media with spending by the state of Florida ($117 billion, with three times the population) and other governmental units as far away as Tokyo.

Florida Governor DeSantis doesn’t oversee trash pickup or legions of firefighters, just as Mayor Mamdani isn’t responsible for his state’s prison system or its sprawling wilderness preserves. Nor are Japanese prefectures comparable to New York City’s five boroughs.

None of this excuses Gotham’s excess. To the contrary, the quest for rage-clicks with apples-to-oranges comparisons risks numbing Americans to even more extreme parts of NYC’s spending — and the lessons the rest of the country should draw.

The biggest piece of the NYC budget, the public school system, is best viewed as a union jobs program for adults, shielded from scrutiny by what is often a greater focus on equity than on outcomes. It’s on track to make up roughly one-third of city spending next year.

Video

The most recent federal data, for school year 2022-23, pegged NYC’s........

© Fox News