Bailouts ≠ 'Balanced Budgets'
New York doesn't even bother to use sleight of hand
Listeners and readers have asked me about reports suggesting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani may have “balanced” the city’s budget. Those reports are wrong. What Mamdani got is a bailout from state taxpayers.
Instead of telling you that in headlines, which far more people see than articles, much of the Big Media has used its top real estate to just get the words “balanced budget” and “Mamdani” near each other. That helps boost his image while obscuring the truth.
Time, a left-leaning outlet I’ve corrected (and where I was once a columnist) used its headline to just ask the question. Non-mainstream outlets you may not be familiar with, like Vital City and Reason, provided answers in theirs. So did the New York Post.
In its article, Time did explain that Mamdani’s plan “relies heavily on state aid and delayed pension payments, raising questions about whether the city has solved its fiscal problems or merely postponed them.” The first half of that sentence is accurate; the rest is not. A state bailout is definitively not a solution to any city’s fiscal problems. It’s a temporary patch, paid for by people across the state, including my hometown of Albany.
Even NYC’s Comptroller Mark Levine noted that this is no solution. The budget “relies on $2.8 billion in one-time measures and $2.3 billion in short-term pension savings, without solving for the fact that City government continues to spend more than we take in,” he said.
Why did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul gift NYC billions of dollars? Without being inside her office or mind, I can say this much: The political calculations are obvious. She and Mamdani are both Democrats. Get a “D” mayor associated with the words “balanced budget,” and you improve the party’s image — particularly helpful in an election year.
Given how many Republicans have gotten away with calling themselves "fiscally conservative” when they obviously aren’t, it may seem just like tit-for-tat. As I’ve explained, GOP presidents have racked up more debt than Democrats on average.
But just as I’ve called on the media to stop the “hawks” nonsense on the right, it should make clear what happened here. If a taxpayer bailout counts as a “balanced budget,” then every industry that has ever accepted a bailout can pat itself on the back just as the mayor and his team are doing now.
Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist in affiliation, but an anti-democratic leader. He has announced that he would violate the Constitution to carry out an extrajudicial arrest. He’s applauded by far-left activists and many people who just don’t know better. Why don’t they know better? The media.
Questions? Comments? Supporters can submit them here:
JL
P.S. In case you missed it…
It is maddening how, on "social media," people who just want to prop up Mamdani will write things like, "Look who erased a $12B deficit in one day." Total clickbait and rooted in total falsehoods. So, in addition to holding legacy-styled media to account, there's also the viral {or should we just call it a virus?} of sycophants posting BS on social media -- the Wild Wild West of unregulated blah-blah where people take a post as truth and as fact. It drives me mad!
It was interesting reading the sourced articles about this budget. I think when it comes to finances and budgets, it is best to interview and listen to people who actually deal in finances and budgets, like the Comptroller. An interview with Mark Levin and others like him would be enlightening. As for budgets: EVERY household knows how they work: either cut spending or increase income. That is different from what NY appears to be doing, which is taking funds from one pocket and putting them into another pocket. I would love to hear/read how NYC identifies waste and fraud. Now that's a good way to cut spending :)