Zohran Mamdani

Mamdani 'Balanced' New York City's Budget—With a Bailout From Albany

The mayor eliminated a $12 billion deficit with an infusion of cash from the state government, as well as by putting off some of today's obligations for tomorrow.

Joe Lancaster | 5.13.2026 3:40 PM

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( Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Newscom)

This week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced an impressive achievement: Just months after warning of a ruinously large deficit, his first-term administration had both balanced the city's budget and increased funding for his favored causes.

If that sounds too good to be true, well, it is.

"We inherited a $12 billion budget deficit," Mamdani said in a video posted to X. "Many said the only way out of this was slashing services and passing an austerity budget. We rejected that. After months of painstaking work, that deficit is now zero. Our city is now on firm financial ground."

"We didn't close the gap on the backs of working people," he wrote in the post. "We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets and making historic investments in public housing. Call it Pothole Politics. Call it Democratic Socialism. It's government that delivers for the people who make this city run."

When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit.

Today, I'm proud to say we brought it down to zero.

We didn't close the gap on the backs of working people.

We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets and making historic........

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