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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani outlined a growing fiscal shortfall facing the city and called for additional revenue measures and changes in the city’s financial relationship with the state, as officials agreed to extend a key budget deadline amid ongoing negotiations.
In a statement addressing the situation, Mamdani said the city is confronting a significant deficit and cannot resolve it through spending reductions alone.
“New York City faces a budget crisis of a historic magnitude. We inherited a deficit larger than any since the Great Recession. Years of mismanagement and chronic under budgeting, alongside a structural imbalance between what New York City sends to the state and what we receive in return have taken a toll. We cannot close this deficit with savings alone. We need new revenue, and we need a structural reset in our relationship with the state.
That is the only way to meet our legal obligation to pass a balanced budget, and to do so without imposing a financial burden onto the backs of working people. I’m glad to partner with Speaker Menin as we call upon Albany and deliver a balanced budget. Together, we are extending the executive budget deadline from this coming Friday until May 12, because a crisis of this scale cannot be solved without state action. I want to be clear, we are not simply asking others to act. New York City is doing our part. We are committed to governing with the fiscal responsibility this moment demands.
Speaker Menin and I have already identified meaningful savings, and we will continue that work carefully, deliberately and without cutting the services that New Yorkers rely on. But we cannot do it alone. That is why we are standing together this morning to underscore what is at stake and to call on Albany to deliver additional revenue.”
