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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration served up a measly $200 million in proposed savings Wednesday – far short of his promised $1.7 billion – as his budget boss got a grilling over the massive shortfall.
Despite not providing the goods, Mamdani released one of his characteristically slick social media videos touting how much he’s cutting waste by pretending to find excess government money in couch cushions and book shelves.
While facing questions in the real world, Hizzoner still contended that officials had hit the $1.7 billion in cuts he pledged to help close a massive budget gap, but didn’t actually provide any proof.
He also said New Yorkers may have to wait till the end of April — when the mayor’s executive budget is due — to actually see all the savings that were proposed.
The quest for savings comes as Mamdani’s math gurus project the city will have to close an upcoming $5.4 billion budget deficit.
Mamdani, who is pitching a behemoth $127 billion proposed budget, has cast the shortfall as a crisis that requires Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to tax the rich. In February, Mamdani even gave the governor a stunning ultimatum: raise taxes on the wealthy or New York City homeowners will face a 9.5% property tax increase.
But the socialist mayor has also made moves — or, according to critics, paid lip service — toward reining in spending.
He signed an executive order directing each city agency to appoint a “Chief Savings Officer” to comb through budgets to find a combined $1.7 billion to help plug the hole.
Those specially appointed officers were supposed to provide a “public report” of their findings by March 20, but the deadline slipped by without a peep.
Instead, Mamdani’s administration officials on Wednesday released a list of minor cuts totaling $200 million, which the mayor summarized in his social media media.
Among the meager cuts were:
- TLC cancelling its $20,000 Slack messaging subscription next fiscal year
- DOE will save $30.3 million in 2027 by implementing spending caps and canceling “underutilized” contracts, but offer up no specifics
- DOE will also save $27.5 million by creating “controls” to curb spending with “supplies, equipment, professional development and travel”
- NYC Emergency Management will switch up software to save $133,000
- Health and Hospitals will cut overtime and ramp up collections to save $14.1 million this year and $25.7 million next year
- Economic Development Corporation will save $626,000 by bringing marketing in-house
- Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will save $1.15 million next year by renegotiating naloxone contract
- DOC will save $4.3 million by bringing some contracts in-house as well
City Hall officials refused to release the reports or any more information on the cuts, telling The Post to trust that they have hit their targets.
Hizzoner’s budget director Sherif Soliman took the same approach during his delayed budget hearing with skeptical City Council members, declining to give any more information.
Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) and finance chair Linda Lee (D-Queens) pressed Soliman for the full list of savings, only to be met with squishy half-promises.
The budget chief did tease that he “may opt” to share more information about the cuts.
“We are evaluating. As soon as we have additional updates that are ready to share we may opt to share them,” he said in response to a question from Lee.
Soliman, like the mayor, said the cuts will be identified in the mayor’s executive budget set to be sent to the City Council by April 26.
“They’ve put forward $1.7 billion in savings, and we are going through all of the different recommendations from the agencies and the departments to approve the number of those recommendations,” Mamdani told reporters during a news conference.
“We’ve shared some of those approvals, but… at the time when we release this budget, it will all be public.”
Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens) argued Mamdani needed to find much more than $1.7 billion in cuts — and noted city officials only provided information on roughly 15% of that.
“Some of the items highlighted, including cuts as small as a $20,000 software subscription, raise real questions about the scale of this effort,” he said in a statement. “Even if the full $1.7 billion is realized, it still falls well short of the multi billion dollar gaps projected in the years ahead.
“New Yorkers deserve transparency. They deserve to know what savings are real, what is recurring, and what is simply being counted as savings.”
Budget watchdogs gave Mamdani credit for working to find savings, but argued he needed to go further.
“The list is a good start, but it’s just that, a start,” said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission. “The administration will have to go much further than the $1.7 billion target — and there’s plenty of opportunity.
“This administration must be as ambitious about government efficiency as it is about affordability. That means real transformation on how we run government, and not spending money that doesn’t help New Yorkers. An efficient government is an affordable one.”
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