With the mayor of , having started the procedures for his pension which will be filed and probably will have been approved by June, both the state authorities and the federal government of , are making their own moves, which will largely determine whether the program of the democratic Socialist will be feasible and applicable.
Mamdani and New York face fiscal challenges
As Mamdani himself admitted in a related press conference at the end of January, New York City is facing significant fiscal challenges as it attempts to implement an ambitious program of social interventions to reduce the cost of living in the city.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani was elected on the front lines of his program to address the punctuality, housing crisis and the burden on low and middle incomes. Central to his announcements are universal free pre-school care, free bus travel, a rent freeze and the creation of municipal grocery stores in underserved areas. Of all these, so far he has only managed to announce the implementation of free pre-school child care in consultation with Governor Kathy Hokul.
$12 billion “hole” over the next two years
From there, the rest of the announcements will have to be tested as to whether they can be implemented after all, as the municipality of New York, as Mamdani himself announced, is facing a budget deficit that may reach 12 billion dollars in the next financial years. That problem was highlighted as early as 2025 by then-City Comptroller Mark Levin and independent budget watchdogs, who warned of growing budget gaps after emergency federal pandemic aid ends.
Responsibilities on Adams and Cuomo – Tax hike on the rich bet
Despite this, Mamdani, in the relevant press conference he gave, claimed that both the former mayor of the city, Eric Adams, and the former governor of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo, are responsible for the huge hole in the budget. The solution to this issue is not only in his hands, since in order to close the hole, he will have to be able to cooperate with Kathy Hokul on taxation issues (that is, to ask Albany, the seat of the state authorities, for an increase in taxation) and other revenues, but where the attitude of the governor does not seem to converge with Mamdani’s.
Mamdani depends on Hokul
The mayor has proposed tax increases on high-income earners and businesses, estimating they could bring in as much as $9 billion a year. However, these changes require the approval of New York State, which is facing opposition from both politicians and business circles.
But in addition to the essentially negative attitude of the State of New York on the issue of taxation of the rich, Mamdani also faces a problem with the implementation of his commitment to free transportation within the city of New York.
The federal government wants to clip his wings
His problem goes to the names of Donald Trump and Sean Patrick Duffy, who is the Secretary of Transportation of the US federal government.
According to US media reports, beginning with an exposé by Politico, Duffy is preparing a bill that would prohibit cities with a population of more than 200,000 that have a bus fleet of more than 100 vehicles and that receive federal funding from “running” free-ride programs.
More specifically, according to the bill, these cities would have to charge for transportation to the general population, but (in an effort for the government to reap the benefits of Mamdani’s agenda) provide free transportation to specific social groups such as disabled people, children, students, and veterans.
