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this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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I thought he didn’t adjust taxes? I thought pension funds were used.
I’m not 100% up to date though so i may just be wrong.
He suspended pensions contributions, took just over $8bn in state aid funding and exemptions from state regulations, and delayed initiatives such as classroom size reduction. The city also over-estimated the number of employees it would have this year so that was an extra special saving of $1.3bn when expected outgoings were reconciled with the actual number. The actual tax increases he has implemented would “only” be worth $500m.
Basically it was a one-time thing, and the budget won’t be balanced next year, and the tax increases are nowhere near enough. But it got good press for a couple of days which I suspect was the point.
Something similar happened with the Federal Liberals in Australia a few years back, maybe in a more cynical manoeuvre. They structured things to get two or three good years of budget balance, had a big song and dance about budget being 'back in black', coffee mugs were made, anybody who cared to read a little understood the transitory nature of it, but that didn't stop the media screeching and squawking.
Joke was on the Liberals in the end, their main opposition, Labor, benefited more from those years than they did, since the Liberals then went ahead and lost the next election.
Lets hope Mamdani is less cynical, and has more humility than the Australian Liberals. In the process proving to Americans that some right winger churning out Friedman quotes isn't actually that good for an economy.
It's both. He convinced Kathy Hochul to pass a tax on second properties (pied-à-terre tax), but he also suspended pension contributions for 5 years.