Mamdani reveals his REAL top priority — and it has nothing to do with his day job |
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Mamdani reveals his REAL top priority — and it has nothing to do with his day job
Mayor Zohran Mamdani just revealed his real top priority: getting reelected. At taxpayer expense.
Hence the outrageous salaries he says he’ll pay 15 (count ’em, 15) comrades to provide agitprop at his newly created, tellingly named Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement.
Even as he ignores his day job: Just witness his lack of any serious proposals for closing the city’s multibillion-dollar budget gap.
As The Post’s Craig McCarthy reports, Zo’s Office of Mass Reelection — er, Engagement — aims to emulate the Democratic Socialists of America model for mobilizing the public.
“The Soviet politburo called, they want their job announcement back,” snarked one Democratic strategist.
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Per city job postings, the staff will build a system of volunteers for campaigns through “co-governance” — meaning, get activists to noisily demand exactly what you want to do anyway.
One listing details duties echoing a campaign staffer’s: “strategizing, coordinating, and executing on engagement that reaches the masses of everyday New Yorkers.”
Call it a “Director of Re-Election Political Get Out the Vote Using Government Money,” another Dem operative quipped.
The salaries are eye-popping: The office’s commissar, er, commissioner, Tascha Van Auken (previously the Mamdani campaign’s field director), will rake in a whopping $250,000 — about the same as Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Nine others will make between $100,000 and $150,000, with payroll totaling nearly $2 million.
And that’s just for 15 salaries; who knows how many millions more this “top priority” office will get?
Mamdani’s ‘mass engagement’ hires will net cushy salaries totaling nearly $2M to spread socialist’s message
(Then again, he plainly needs some serious comms help, if his cringe-worthy “Crunchwrap” video Tuesday is any indication.)
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s budget, which calls for a mere $1.7 billion in savings, would still leave a $5.4 billion hole even if those savings actually materialize.
And he’s gotten almost nowhere getting even those tiny trims: Per Office of Management and Budget Director Sherif Soliman, he’s signed off on just $200 million, or less than 12%, of it.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission will cancel its Slack subscription, “saving nearly $20,000,” a press release boasts; the Sanitation Department will vacate “underutilized office space,” saving $194,000.
Are they serious? This is just pretend budget-cutting.
Instead, Hizzoner is still dreaming of a cash bath from the state (on top of the $1.5 billion Hochul has already offered) via tax hikes.
But Hochul has nixed those taxes as she runs for re-election, and Mamdani’s given up on his plan for (threat of) a 9.5% property-tax hike.
We get it, Mr. Mayor: It’s natural enough to want to focus on something you know you’re good at, like campaigning.
But the city needs you to get your nose to the grindstone and work at the job the voters hired you to do; if you don’t get cracking, all the “mass engagement” in the world won’t save you from their fury.
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