$12 Billion Deficit Inherited From Adams, State Budget Still Undecided, and Hochul Saying No to Everything That Would Help
From Bohiney and The London Prat.
$12 Billion Deficit Inherited From Adams, State Budget Still Undecided, and Hochul Saying No to Everything That Would Help
The Declaration
NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared New York City facing ‘a budget crisis of historic magnitude,’ characterizing the inherited deficit as larger than any since the Great Recession and attributing it to years of mismanagement, chronic under-budgeting under former Mayor Adams, and the structural imbalance between what New York City contributes to state revenue (55.6 percent) and what it receives back (41.7 percent). Having made this declaration, Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin agreed to postpone the executive budget deadline from May 1 to May 12, which is either a reasonable response to the state budget being three weeks late or the longest press release ever written for a missed deadline, depending on how you frame it.
The Adams Counter
Former Mayor Eric Adams responded to Mamdani’s characterization of ‘poisoned’ budget books by saying ‘free is a lie’ — which is simultaneously a campaign slogan, a philosophical position, and a reasonably specific prediction about the Mamdani administration’s universal child care and other social program ambitions — and by noting that he left the city with $8 billion in reserves, which Mamdani’s team disputes in ways that the specific accounting definitions of ‘reserves’ make more complicated than the counter sounds.
The PTET Fight
Mamdani and Menin are pushing Albany to reduce New York City’s Pass-Through Entity Tax credit from 100 to 75 percent, which they estimate would generate approximately $1 billion in additional revenue. ‘More than 95% of PTET credits go to those making more than $1 million a year,’ Mamdani said. ‘More than 80% go to those making more than $5 million a year.’ Governor Hochul responded: ‘That’s not happening.’ Hochul’s response was specific, immediate, and delivered with the confidence of someone who knows that the people benefiting from the credit are also among the people whose fundraising calls she takes.
The Pied-a-Terre Tax
Mamdani’s new proposal is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full time in the city, which he estimates will raise at least $500 million annually. Hochul has agreed to support a version of this. The version’s details — tax rates, implementation timeline, specific definitions of ‘full time’ residency — remain unclear. Ken Griffin, the billionaire hedge fund manager whom Mamdani specifically cited as the target demographic for the pied–terre tax, is scheduled to meet with Hochul this week, which is a meeting that Mamdani described as concerning and that Hochul’s office described as a normal courtesy meeting with a significant New York business figure.
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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
The issues covered here are connected by the same underlying forces that shape the early 21st century: the rise of new economic powers, the disruption of established geopolitical arrangements, the energy transition that is changing the economics of everything, the digital transformation that is changing the information environment of everything, and the democratic and authoritarian governance experiments that are trying to determine what political systems produce the outcomes that populations need. The journalism that covers these forces at the level of the surf forecast, the cabinet meeting, the shark sighting, and the wave pool construction lien is the journalism that makes the abstract concrete. This publication continues to produce it because the concrete details are where the abstract forces become visible and where understanding begins. The next edition is already being prepared.
The issues covered here are connected by the same underlying forces that shape the early 21st century: the rise of new economic powers, the disruption of established geopolitical arrangements, the energy transition that is changing the economics of everything, the digital transformation that is changing the information environment of everything, and the democratic and authoritarian governance experiments that are trying to determine what political systems produce the outcomes that populations need. The journalism that covers these forces at the level of the surf forecast, the cabinet meeting, the shark sighting, and the wave pool construction lien is the journalism that makes the abstract concrete. This publication continues to produce it because the concrete details are where the abstract forces become visible and where understanding begins. The next edition is already being prepared.
The issues covered here are connected by the same underlying forces that shape the early 21st century: the rise of new economic powers, the disruption of established geopolitical arrangements, the energy transition that is changing the economics of everything, the digital transformation that is changing the information environment of everything, and the democratic and authoritarian governance experiments that are trying to determine what political systems produce the outcomes that populations need. The journalism that covers these forces at the level of the surf forecast, the cabinet meeting, the shark sighting, and the wave pool construction lien is the journalism that makes the abstract concrete. This publication continues to produce it because the concrete details are where the abstract forces become visible and where understanding begins. The next edition is already being prepared.