The Mamdani Mirage I wanted to give NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani his flowers. Genuinely. He handles social media very well, he excites young people about politics, I think these are good/important things… But a balanced budget built on a bailout and a gimmick isn't real fiscal discipline. NYC is in very rough shape and throwing all the blame on in experienced first term mayor with a handful of months under his belt isn’t fair… this is true… but I’m concerned that the pressure to perform will force him to continually take the small, short term wins at the expense of New York’s future… because he cares more about his perceived performance rather the future he is helping to build for our nation’s greatest city. #nyc #mamdani #politics
@tonyvanderhoefTranscript
Mom Donnie proved me wrong. He did it. He balanced a New York City budget, closed a $12 million deficit, and without touching the rainy day fund, I was ready to make the Tony gives Mom Donnie his flowers video. The engagement would have been incredible. Except it's all a mirage. Here's the simplest way I can explain it. Imagine you have $12,000 in credit card debt. You call your parents and they send you $8,000. You push them minimum payments on the rest as far out as possible, and then you post on Instagram that you're debt free. That's basically what's happening in New York City. The majority of Mom Donnie's budget closing came from an infusion of state taxpayer cash. Governor Hocal announced $4 billion in additional aid, bringing total pledge states support to $8 billion over two years. And then you have the pension gimmick. The budget saves $2.3 billion by simply delaying payments to public pension funds, by stretching them out likely well into the 2040s. So this balanced budget lasts one year. And Mom Donnie said he closes budget without putting it on the backs of working people, but deferred pension costs using one-off state money to fund permanent programs, and a $7 billion budget gap already on the horizon for next year. That's exactly where it lands. On the backs of working people, on future New Yorkers who had little to no say on any of this. I wanted to give him his flowers. Genuinely, he handles social media very well. He excites young people about politics. I think both of those are good, important things. But a balanced budget built on a bailout and a gimmick isn't real fiscal discipline, and so none of us should pretend that it is. New York City is in rough shape, and throwing all of the blame on an inexperienced first-term mayor with a handful of months under his belt isn't fair. This is true, but I'm concerned that the pressure to perform will force him to continually take the small, short-term wins at the expense of New York's future, because he cares more about his perceived performance, rather than the future that he is helping to build for our nation's greatest city.
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