Zohran Mamdani blames $12B budget gap facing NYC on Eric Adams bookkeeping and Andrew Cuomo cuts

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said New York City is facing a budget gap of $12 billion and blamed his predecessor Eric Adams’ accounting methods and cuts made years ago under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Standing beside a TV screen with a slide titled "THE ADAMS BUDGET CRISIS," Mamdani said the city’s coffers were in a "serious financial crisis."

"This crisis has a name — and a chief architect. In the words of the Jackson 5, it's as easy as ABC," Mamdani said at a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday.

Mamdani says he plans to propose a balanced budget as required by law — including through identifying efficiencies, not cuts that hurt the poor and working class. He said Gov. Kathy Hochul should allow taxes to be raised on wealthier New Yorkers and on big corporations. (Hochul, who is running for reelection, has all but ruled out tax hikes.)

The items that are bloating the budget include social programs that Mamdani supports and has no plans to cut. He said Adams underbudgeted for shelter costs, rental assistance for poor people, and judgments and claims against the city, among others. Mamdani says he plans to keep up his campaign pledges to expand social services.

"We will not allow the failures of the prior administration to dull the ambitions of our own," Mamdani said.

Asked again and again by reporters, Mamdani declined to identify what sorts of efficiencies he might target when his proposed budget is released next month. The one example he gave of an inefficiency — in a budget that was $116 billion most recently — is a $500,000 AI-powered chatbot that debuted to ridicule under Adams.

He said roughly from 2010 to 2022, state revenue under Cuomo grew by $48 billion. The city generated 64% of the growth, or $31 billion, but when municipal costs went up by $36 billion, the city got only 42%, or $15 billion of the growth. It should have gotten $8 billion more, he said.

In a message to Newsday on X, Adams disputed Mamdani’s criticisms and questioned whether the pledges for expanded government programs on which Mamdani campaigned — such as free buses and free child care — are fiscally possible.

"Mayor Mamdani promised New Yorkers the moon with no way to pay for it. Now that his promises are collapsing under basic math, he is throwing tantrums and pointing fingers instead of admitting he misled the public," Adams said. "Every budget passed under my administration was approved by the City Council, including Mayor Mamdani's City Council comrades."

Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesman, cited aid the governor increased for city public schools and Medicaid costs the state absorbed.

"Zohran Mamdani needs to learn that being an executive is more than cosplaying in a custom designer made windbreaker," Azzopardi said, "you need a basic command of the facts." 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.