""Over the last year, New York faced a historic fiscal crisis..." Although that sounds like Mamdani, who used the same phrase to describe the city's current budget challenges, it was actually former Governor Basil Paterson averting doom back in 2009. When David Dinkins took office in 1990, he, too, inherited a fiscal crisis, as did Rudy Guiliani, who had to close a projected gap of $2.3 billion-out of a total of $31.6 billion-in his first year."
"Viewed historically, especially in the context of a total budget of $127 billion, the city's current $5.4 billion projected deficit-already down from the $12 billion announced a few weeks ago-looks less like a fiscal chasm and more like a pothole. Yet the demands of custom, when coupled with the young mayor's evident wish to project the financial sobriety signalled by his dark suits and sombre neckties,"
"The whole performance is perhaps best summed up by the phrase "or we'll kill this dog," an allusion to the classic 1973 cover of the National Lampoon, which threatened desperate measures "if you don't buy this magazine." In Mamdani's case, the threat was to raise the city's property taxes-which as the mayor noted is the only significant municipal revenue source not subject to the dictates of Governor Kathy Hochul"
New York has repeatedly faced fiscal crises across administrations, including in 1990, 2009, and recently, with projected deficits varying in scale. A current $5.4 billion projected deficit, down from $12 billion, is modest relative to a $127 billion total budget. Political leaders often frame budget shortfalls dramatically and threaten measures—such as substantial property tax hikes or new income and corporate taxes—to compel state cooperation. The mayor proposes a 2 percent income-tax increase on earners above $1 million and higher corporate taxes, and warns of a 9.5 percent property-tax rise if the state blocks revenue initiatives. Fiscal theater and customary responses persist.
Read at The Nation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]