Mamdani, Menin To Announce Delay Of New York City Budget Amid Albany Inaction

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are set to announce an agreement Tuesday to extend the city’s executive budget deadline while jointly calling for more aid from Albany.

The public comity between the two officials marks a sharp reversal from the animosity triggered earlier this month by a spat over the city’s troubled finances.

By law, the mayor must release an executive budget proposal by May 1. However, with the city facing a multibillion-dollar budget gap, revenue from Albany has become a key element of the equation. State lawmakers and the governor are now nearly a month late on their own budget, with the chances of a fully baked plan coming together by Friday slim. That has made it difficult for Mamdani to meet the statutory deadline, which can only be extended by a vote of the Council.

According to two people with knowledge of the plan, granted anonymity discuss sensitive talks, the mayor and Menin plan to announce a delay until mid-May while advocating for additional revenue from Albany to help plug a $5.4 billion budget gap and avoid instituting a politically toxic property tax increase.

The mayor’s office and the speaker’s team did not immediately comment, but their joint appearance would appear to fulfill a demand coming from Albany about the two officials getting on the same page before coming to the state for another bailout. The message was delivered directly to the mayor by the Assembly’s powerful speaker, Carl Heastie.

“I told him that it would be helpful for the City Council to reconcile where they are, and I believe that’s what they’re going to try to do,” Heastie told reporters last week.

The fresh deal between Menin and Mamdani will mark the first time an executive budget release has been delayed since 2015, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Council reached an agreement to push back the May 1 deadline.

The joint appearance is also another sign tensions between the two officials are cooling following a dustup prompted by a Council report on the city’s finances.

On April 1, the body released its response to the mayor’s preliminary budget that suggested the city’s books could be balanced without major intervention from Albany — a thesis that undermined Mamdani’s push for higher taxes to close the gap and one that was met with a sharp rebuke from the democratic socialist.

Shortly afterward, Menin began to more forcefully take on her role as a check on the executive branch, issuing several critical statements, imperiling a key mayoral nominee and even helping to stage a small protest outside the mayor’s 100-day celebration in Queens.

While Menin now appears poised to join Mamdani in calling for more direct state aid, she has shown no sign of being willing to support his push for Albany to authorize income and corporate tax increases this year — a position she shares with Hochul.

The moderate Democratic governor has become a reliable ally for the democratic socialist mayor. She handed Mamdani his first major victory in January by agreeing to a substantial expansion of no-cost child care, a signature issue for them both.

Hochul also agreed to several state-backed measures meant to bolster New York City’s finances. In February, she and the mayor struck a deal for the state to send $1.5 billion in additional aid to help close the city’s budget gap. Last month, the governor proposed an annual pied-à-terre surcharge on non-primary New York City residences valued at more than $5 million — a narrowly prescribed tax that is expected to generate $500 million for the city.

“I know the pied-à-terre proposal is on the table, which is good, but not enough,” Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said Monday. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find some additional funding for them.”

Yet the governor is unwilling to embrace broader tax hikes, including higher rates on wealthy people and large corporations.

Democratic state lawmakers have weighed additional financial support for the city amid the ongoing budget negotiations in Albany, including more funding for an aid to municipalities program as well as more money for city schools.

“There’s a lot more we can be thinking about in terms of progressive revenue to help the city,” Brooklyn state Sen. Andrew Gounardes said.