US EditionNY's New Leftist Mayor Faces Perilous Budget Test
Mamdani's $127 billion budget falls short of promised 1% parks funding and cuts $30 million from libraries, with parks near 0.5% and libraries at 0.39%, officials say.
- On Tuesday, the preliminary budget keeps parks funding flat at roughly half the 1% Mamdani pledged and library spending at about 0.39%.
- Facing a $5.4 billion gap, Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion city budget and blamed the previous administration for shortfalls, echoing his predecessor’s pattern of cuts and restorations.
- Longer-Term forecasts show parks funding falling to roughly $653.6 million by 2030 against a $142.1 billion projected city budget, with the funding gap growing from roughly $536 million in 2026 to nearly $767 million by 2030.
- The budget proposes a $30 million library reduction with about $2 million restored, but leaders warn it’s not permanent and City Council must approve the final plan by July 1.
- The proposal arrives amid Mamdani's reversed campaign promise barely six weeks into office, his recent equity framing of parks with Tricia Shimamura as parks commissioner, and resumed homeless encampment sweeps after 19 deaths.
44 Articles
44 Articles
Daily Journal
NY's new leftist mayor faces perilous budget test
Two months after riding into office on a wave of youth support and hopes his unprecedented leftist policies could tackle New York's soaring cost of living, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is eying raising an unpopular property tax.
Budget shortfall may close the book on Mamdani’s library funding promise
After vowing on the campaign trail to give libraries up to 0.5% of the city’s budget, Mayor Mamdani in his preliminary spending plan included a $30 million cut. The proposal takes a page from the playbook of his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, who did a budget dance with the City Council before eventually restoring full funding. But that restoration wasn’t permanent funding, and libraries across the five boroughs could find themselves in a…
New York Mayor Mamdani is breaking his promise on library funding.
Fitting that a few days after Valentine’s Day, New Yorkers may be reaching the end of their Mamdani honeymoon. Earlier this week, the Mayor released his preliminary budget for the 2027 fiscal year, and New Yorkers and library advocates were shocked to see lower proposed spending for the public library system than what Mayor Mamdani had promised on the campaign trail. In his election platform and subsequent public statements, Mayor Mamdani backed…
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