Mamdani seeks Albany's help with NYC's $7B budget hole

ALBANY — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants the state to step in to help plug a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Mamdani testified for several hours Wednesday during the annual budget hearing for local governments, telling lawmakers the city is facing a projected $7 billion budget gap. Mamdani blamed that largely on his predecessor, Eric Adams.

Lawmakers also questioned Mamdani on their own concerns in the city, from car break-ins to how he would deal with overcrowding in juvenile detention centers.

During his testimony, Mamdani tried to recast the relationship between the city and the state to one of cooperation. Past mayors, including Adams, Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg, often had contentious relationships with Albany, which they nonetheless relied on to fund signature agenda items.

Mamdani has proposed an ambitious agenda and is seeking to close the budget gap in part with an increase in the state’s corporate tax rate and a 2% increase on millionaires in the city.

Mamdani noted that New York is the only eligible city in the state to not receive direct state aid known as Aid and Incentives for Municipalities and advocated for a direct revenue stream for the city.

"For years, New York City has been treated not as an engine of shared prosperity, but as a resource to be drained," he said. "That imbalance has real-world consequences: families forced to leave a city they can no longer afford, and diminished investments in schools, libraries, parks, our essential services."

State Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood) asked Mamdani how he would ensure his proposed tax increases wouldn’t chase businesses out of the city to other states and whether his plans would impact the city’s suburbs.

Mamdani, who represented Astoria in the Assembly for three terms, said his administration wants to ensure the city remains an economic engine.

"What we want to do is ensure that wealth can extend to the lives of everybody who calls the city home," he said.

Democratic legislative leaders have indicated some support for a tax hike in the state budget, but Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she does not support raising income taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.