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The mayor of any American city must make tough choices as he or she plans a budget for the municipality. Best case scenarios fade as tough reality comes knocking at the door. Suddenly, new values clarification exercises become necessary, slashing hitherto supported projects, reducing allocations, or even eliminating pet projects all together. Such is the current situation at the beginning of the mayorship of Mr. Zohran Mamdani.
In an article by reporter Greg David on January 16, 2026 in The City, Manhattan Borough President, Mark Levine, sent an earthquake-like tremor throughout the city, surely felt all the way to Albany, New York, that the new mayor would soon have to explain how he would deal with a 12 billion dollar budget gap! Suddenly, the heady fantasies of socialist utopian lore will have to genuflect to the undeniable reality that not even new math will make the budget manageable. Using tried and true traditional math, 12 billion is the sum of a 2 billion shortfall in 2026 with another 10 billion deficit for 2027.
Does Mamdani have time to analyze what is not working in the budget process and then explain it cogently in the pending early February budget plan? As Albany must approve any new taxes, and Governor Hochul has signaled absolutely no impetus to do so, Mamdani has limited means to raise additional revenue. Any dream of levying new, ostensibly punitive, taxes is now Mamdani’s nightmare scenario as he can do nothing without the imprimatur “K.H.” pressed in wax with the governor’s signet ring.
To his credit, Levine promises to be an “activist comptroller" and a dedicated fiscal watchdog with stringent oversight who can order stealth action to thwart any fiscal fiascos which could take the city by surprise.
To the certain chagrin of anti-Zionist activists, Levine insists he will resume pension fund purchases of Israeli bonds, while he also criticizes the up to 18-month paperwork delays in the Housing Preservation and Development Agency.
The financial capital of the world is heavily paper based in its bureaucracy which Levine hopes to modernize as he inspects internal systems in New York municipal government.
While the city desperately desires job growth, Levine crisply points out that recent job growth has occurred in Health Care and Social Services, rather than in higher wage categories. While the task is ominous, Levine’s clarity of assessment and willingness to look reality in the face is a hopeful sign for the future, surely not immediate, financial stability of The Big Apple.
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