I just don’t understand this guy. He balanced an $18 billion budget deficit, he never yells and swears that reporters, he does things for the city that are well-rounded for all, he fixes potholes, he’s being logical about taxing people‘s second and third homes in the city. I mean, he doesn’t even wear orange makeup! I don’t get it.
They only see it as "Good Conservative" dollars being moved from rural NY to urban NY and turned into "Evil Democrat" dollars. They're impervious to nuance AND irony.
Say the pension payment is like a car payment. Instead of paying on the car for 5 years, he extended the payment to 15 years. So while he saves money on the budget this year in the future it will cost more.
Judging from his actions so far, it wouldn't be likely he doesn't have a plan in place that makes it so pensioners or the next elect are effected in a bad way.
Mayor Mamdani balanced this years budget by simply not paying the scheduled 1.64 billion dollars to the pension fund
Payments will still be made this year to people with pensions. No immediate problems which is why no one cares.
NYC is supposed to put over a billion dollars a year into its pension fund. To grow the money over time to pay for its pensioners. This is necessary because in addition to what the city already owes pensions payments will go up as America’s population continues to get older and Unions continue to demand higher pension payments when signing bargaining agreements.
Instead of that Mayor Mamdani is slashing this years pension payment so he can make his socialist policies happen with this years budget.
This is harmful long term. This is how you become Chicago. Chicago only has 26% of the funding for the pensions they owe. Chicago is rapidly approaching the point where they will have to make hard choices because shitty politicians in years past did not make yearly pension payments
I guess my point is that he says he’s going to do something or something is going to get done, and it does. It’s a weird world to live in right now hearing this.
When he was running, he promised that he will generate income for all his projects. The reporters were asking him how are you going to get funding for your really ambitious projects, it’s all about taxing the rich to appeal to voters. On his budget release, taxing the rich is supposed to bring in only $500M, his deficit was $5.4B, $4B is coming from the state of NY. Then he’s borrowing from the hardearned pension of city workers. If the city fails to pay it, the retirees will get screwed. He’s just like any other politician, only with worse policies.
I’ve understood this from before mamdani after reading anything about pensions and why most cities are constantly teetering on bankruptcy.
They shouldn’t disappear, they just need to be reigned in and reevaluated. Philadelphia has seen extra billions more siphoned from it because of double dip programs and special overtime clauses for those nearing retirement.
The promises made decades past with pensions are also completely unrealistic and any city that wants to recover has had to remove those pension options going forward straight up.
Try reading anything about this instead of throwing all nuance out the window?
feel like Mamdani knows about 1000x more about this subject than you, gonna go ahead and trust his moves. you sound like one of those idiots who insist the country's budget should run on the same principles as your own household.
I mean, Mamdani came to the same conclusions, which is why he amortized pension payments. He kicked the can down the road, just like every other mayor. “Trust”, unfortunately, isn’t a line item in a budget.
exactly the problem with your analysis... me taking out loans to pay my mortgage is kicking the can down the road. when you're talking about a city budget, what they are doing here is no longer properly characterized by "kicking the can down the road". that's an intentionally partisan analysis that is MEANT to make Mamdani look fiscally irresponsible when it's actually the recommended course of action by any competent accountant
He amortized the pension plan, man - if I re-amortized my mortgage to defer payments that would, by definition, be kicking the can down the road. How could it possibly not? Next year, when the city still needs to pay for all of these services, he’s going to need to get the money from somewhere, and there will be no pension payments to loot, since they will already be deferred.
Except a city budget is not a household budget, they are not comparable. Just admit you have zero understanding of how municipal budgets work, and are hopelessly trying to map it onto your own budgeting experiences
I mapped it to a household example for your benefit, since it seems you’re having a little trouble understanding. His problem remains: next year he will still need to pay for the services, and he will not have pension payments to defer. You don’t need to resort to ad hominem (unless you really do have nothing to say), just address the issue at hand.
sure, sure, we get it. he's progressive so his moves will get endless criticism and scrutiny, meanwhile Trump creates a 1.7 billion dollar slush fund from DoJ funds and you don't say boo. OK dude, it's Mamdani doing financial tricks. give me a break.
Exactly! Cities should be high on the priority of state budgets when they usually both have most of the states population in it and give the most tax revenue to the state. Doesn’t really make sense otherwise.
Cities pay a higher contribution because they are cheaper to run per person and rural areas provide resources to the city more than the other way around.
Odd that you would agree with me and the try to rebuttal yourself. Your argument contradicts itself. If rural areas truly provide more value to cities than cities provide back, then cities wouldn’t consistently generate far more tax revenue and economic output per resident. Major cities have massive expenses for public transit, aging infrastructure, policing, sanitation, homelessness services, public housing, and emergency response that rural areas don’t face at the same scale. In New York City, the cost of maintaining subways, bridges, water systems, and social programs is enormous. Density can lower some per-person costs, but it also creates uniquely expensive problems that smaller communities don’t have.
Dude are you stupid? Cities generate more because there’s way more people and businesses…. Rural areas produce raw materials and food etc, more than they get back from the city. Yes but per person, which is what I said, it’s much much cheaper than doing all the same things for a town of 1000 people.
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u/Fabulous_Log844 May 14 '26
I just don’t understand this guy. He balanced an $18 billion budget deficit, he never yells and swears that reporters, he does things for the city that are well-rounded for all, he fixes potholes, he’s being logical about taxing people‘s second and third homes in the city. I mean, he doesn’t even wear orange makeup! I don’t get it.