NEW YORK, NY - TODAY, Mayor Zohran Mamdani outlined the "Adams Budget Crisis," a fiscal emergency driven by years of staggering mismanagement under former Mayor Eric Adams that left New York City facing a $12 billion budget shortfall over fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
Speaking at a press conference, Mamdani said the crisis stemmed from a pattern of underbudgeting essential services that New Yorkers rely on every day including rental assistance, shelter operations, and special education. For example, Adams budgeted $860 million for cash assistance in fiscal year 2026, even though current projections put the cost at nearly $1.7 billion, almost double what was budgeted.
Under the Adams administration, budget gaps were consistently and intentionally understated. In some programs, the true shortfall is nearly double what was publicly disclosed. Mamdani also pointed to a longer pattern of disinvestment driven by the state. During more than a decade under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City sent far more revenue to Albany than it received in return. In 2022 alone, New York City sent $68.8 billion in revenue to Albany - and received just $47.6 billion back .
"That imbalance has hollowed out our city's finances and left us with a chasm that can no longer be sustained," Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said.
Mayor Mamdani said his administration will not allow working New Yorkers - who did not cause the crisis - to become victims of its solution. He reaffirmed the city's commitment to balancing the preliminary budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 on Feb. 17 and renewed his call to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations in New York, while rooting out waste and inefficiencies in city government.
Find Mayor Mamdani's "Adams Budget Crisis" PowerPoint HERE .
Transcript below:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good morning. I want to speak directly to New Yorkers, who have for too long been misled and misinformed about the true state of our City's finances. I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis. There is a massive fiscal deficit in our City's budget to the tune of at least $12 billion. We did not arrive at this place by accident. This crisis has a name and a chief architect. In the words of the Jackson 5, it's as easy as A-B-C. This is the Adams Budget Crisis.
In 2025, under the banner of what he called the Best Budget Ever, former Mayor Eric Adams handed the next administration a poisoned chalice. He systematically under-budgeted services that New Yorkers rely on every single day. Rental assistance, shelter, and special education, while quietly leaving behind enormous gaps for the future. And knowing his time in office was likely coming to an end, Mayor Adams chose political self-preservation over fiscal responsibility. This is not just bad governance. It is negligence.
And now, the responsibility falls upon us to protect working New Yorkers from paying the price. We expected for months that when we entered City Hall, we would likely inherit a grim fiscal situation. Many of the journalists here reported about an imbalance during the Adams years. Yet, once we looked under the hood, the full picture was staggering. However, Eric Adams is not the only reason we are here. For over a decade, as he governed from Albany, former Governor Andrew Cuomo extracted our City's resources, using our revenue to address state-level holes, while withholding from the City what it was owed. The result is a stunning fiscal imbalance. New Yorkers contribute 54.5 percent of state revenue and receive only 40.5 percent back.
No part of this state gives more and gets less in return than New York City. While we did not create this crisis, we will solve it. And we will do so, without balancing the budget on the backs of working people. Now I want to walk New Yorkers through the nuances of this crisis that we must contend with. Here, you can see former Mayor Adams projected budget gaps, as well as the projections prepared by City Comptroller Lander and Levine as well as State Controller DiNapoli.
These projections were formed independently, but they tell the same story. We are still reviewing the City's fiscal health ourselves, but our early analysis is in line with their findings. And the story that those findings tell is clear. The Adams administration dramatically and intentionally understated the problem. The budget gaps are twice as high year after year. Notably, Mayor Adams underestimated known budget expenses so he could show FY26 was balanced. These are not differences in opinion between accountants. They are measured to the tune of more than $7 billion beyond what he published.
We are dealing with vast figures and statistics that can often feel intangible. I want to place them into a historical context, so that the scale of the crisis is clear to New Yorkers. For reference, the budget gaps we are facing today are higher than they were at the height of the Great Recession. And when compared to the pre-pandemic 10-year average, some of these projected deficits are over 300 percent higher. This is not business as usual. This is a historic challenge and it demands an honest response.
Time and again, Adams kicked the can of responsibility down the road. Last year, when he laid out his January and May financial plans, he not only failed to budget sufficiently; he ignored projections that indicated major expenses [that] would rise in years to come. These expenses not only totaled nearly $8 billion, they're on an upward trajectory. And still, former Mayor Adams refused to incorporate them, leaving a massive $3 billion hole in FY26. The budgetary choices he made in the past, have consequences that we reckon with today, with ripple effects extending into the years to come.
Former Mayor Adams made the repeated, deliberate choice to under-budget. It was a pattern. He budgeted $860 million for cash assistance this fiscal year, but current estimates are $1.625 billion, nearly double what he had accounted for. He budgeted $1.47 billion for shelter costs this fiscal year, but current estimates reflected an additional, unaccounted for, $500 million. He budgeted paltry fractions of what was actually required, undermining the city's ability to fulfill its promises. These are not optional services. They are critical responsibilities of City government. Let's talk about the state and City imbalance.
In FY22, New York City sent $68.8 billion in revenue to Albany and received $47.6 billion back. That is more than a gap. It is a $21.2 billion chasm, and it can no longer be sustained. It is measured in city schools that could have more teachers, parks that could have more staff, playgrounds that could be built across the five boroughs. That $21.2 billion gap occurred because over the decade Governor Cuomo was in office, the state saw our city as a place from which wealth could be extracted without recognizing the needs of that same place. New York City is the economic engine of this state.
While we contribute the majority of state revenue growth, we do not receive the same proportion of state funds. From FY2010 to FY22, a period where Andrew Cuomo served as governor for almost the entire duration, state revenue grew by $48 billion. New York City alone generated 64 percent of that growth, or $31 billion. But when expenditures increased by $36 billion, New York City received only 42 percent, or $15 billion. Annually, that is an $8 billion shortfall of what our city was owed.
Our city is one of multitudes, containing both incredible affluence and tremendous needs. And for too long, only half of that equation has been met. Each of these slides, and the numbers they contain, tell a clear story. It is the story of a city that is economically powerful and central to the success of the entire state, if not the entire country. And it is the story of a city that has been failed by its leaders of the past. Together, let us tell a new story. As we approach the preliminary budget, City Hall will do what the law requires.
We will deliver a balanced budget over two fiscal years. We will also do, however, what former Mayor Adams never did. We will be clear and direct about our needs with Albany. Working people did not cause this crisis, and they cannot be made the victims of its solution. In my inaugural address, I made a promise. I said that we would overcome every moment of adversity, together. And we would meet every moment of fiscal challenge with ambition, not austerity. That promise stands.
We will not shrink from this moment. We will not succumb to small ideas. We will meet this crisis with the bold solutions it demands. That means recalibrating the broken fiscal relationship between the state and the city. And it means that the time has come to tax the richest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations. This is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet we have allowed one in four New Yorkers to live in poverty. It doesn't need to be that way.
We will remain in constant conversation with Governor Hochul and legislative leaders, and we will do something that too many New Yorkers have learned not to expect from City Hall. We will be honest, transparent, and we will communicate the decisions we're making and why we're making them. We have inherited a crisis from the past New York, but it need not define our future. We will overcome this moment of hardship and chart a new course for our city. It will be difficult, but anything worth doing always is. Thank you.
Question: Part of the budget gap that you've criticized from the previous administration comes down to the CityFHEPS ballooning spending for the comptroller's analysis. Do you plan to accurately reflect those costs in the preliminary budget, and would you continue the last administration's litigation to stop an expansion of eligibility for that program in a second budget question?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, much of what I have just shared with all of you and with New Yorkers is making clear how the prior administration mismanaged not only the budget, but also, frankly, housing and assistance programs. And as we assess the state of the city's fiscal health, we have requested more time to work on a settlement in the CityFHEPS case. Looking forward, we want to make sure that we balance New Yorkers' access to medium- and long-term housing while also crafting a sustained and balanced budget. And throughout all of this, we are looking to be honest and direct with New Yorkers. We are not looking to play the kind of financial games that have often come to characterize these budget processes.
Question: Will the settlement expand eligibility or no?
Mayor Mamdani: I think right now, those conversations are ongoing.
Question: Just one on efficiency. I mean, you've been critical of the past administration's cost-cutting, but you also said you will find efficiencies. What, if any, cost-cutting measures are you looking at? What's on the table? Are things like agency cuts or remaining vacancies, which the past administration has been criticized for, on the table for you?
Mayor Mamdani: Yeah, I think there is a difference between pursuing savings and efficiencies and pursuing austerity. And we are going to pursue every single saving and efficiency that we can find, and we're also going to do so in a manner that does not come at the expense of working New Yorkers. When we are looking at such a clear and explicit picture of gross fiscal mismanagement, it is also clear that that extends to other expense decisions that were made. And so right now, we are going through every single dollar that the city spends and ensuring that every single one of us on this stage would be able to defend that dollar. Because if it cannot be defended, then it's not a dollar that should be spent.
Question: You're describing this sort of fundamental relationship reset that you want between the city and the state. I imagine it would take more than just these two tax increases to achieve that. So, I mean, is there more that you're expecting to ask for in terms of long-term, you know, resetting just beyond that?
Mayor Mamdani: We are speaking about a fiscal crisis at [a] scale greater than the Great Recession. And so, there will not be one single thing that can answer that crisis. It will require us to pursue every single avenue. That means looking inward into savings and efficiencies. That also means raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations. And it means recalibrating the relationship with the state.
We are looking for what New York City is owed. And what we have found in almost the entire duration that former Governor Cuomo was at the helm in Albany was the shifting of that relationship into one that is stunning in its imbalance. And so, there are a number of specific things that then-Governor Cuomo did in shifting those burdens. There are sadly too many examples to be able to cite with you today, but it does leave us with many options for how we can bring this back to what is deserved.
Question: I'm wondering about the wisdom of calling on higher taxes for wealthy corporations when the governor has been clear that that is not her priority and she's not interested in that. And I wonder if that will leave the city in a difficult position if, politically, you are unable to get those things done.
Mayor Mamdani: I think what we're seeing right now is that the city is in a difficult position. We are also seeing a moment where the gross fiscal mismanagement has left New Yorkers with a bill the likes of which we have not seen in many, many years. And we have seen in the politics of the past that in moments such as these, we ask those with the least to bear the greatest burden. And we know that here in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, that we can not only put our city back on firmer financial footing, but also build a stronger city for everyone if the top one percent of New Yorkers pay an additional two percent in income taxes.
Recently, I actually had a New Yorker turn to me and self-identify as someone who would be taxed by this proposal. He said, "You know, I'm a millionaire, and is it true that you want to raise taxes on me?" And I said, "It is true." And they said, "Well, I would leave. " I said, "I don't think you would." They said, "Why not?" I said, "Because we're looking to raise income taxes on the top one percent by two percent. So, for $1 million a year, that's an increase of $20,000 in taxes. And when I told them the amount, they realized that it wasn't enough to actually make them change where they would consider their residence.
Question: [Inaudible] matter if the governor says she's not doing it?
Mayor Mamdani: I think what we've seen for far too long is the City hasn't even advocated for itself when it comes to Albany. And what we are going to do is exhaust every option to make it clear that the time has come to reset the relationship between the city, its wealthiest residents, its most profitable corporations, and with Albany. And I believe that together we can get there.
Question: The criticism of Mayor Adams for the first three years in office was actually that he was too conservative in his estimates of what the revenue would end up being. And then the tax receipts from high earners and from Wall Street bonuses would come in hundreds of millions of dollars over what they had originally anticipated. And his conservatism was used the first three years - not this most recent year - to justify spending cuts or austerity. Are you being conservative right now in your estimates of what the Wall Street revenue is going to be? We saw the state have a banner year-$17 billion more than they thought they would get. Are you assuming that the Wall Street bonuses are going to go down?
Mayor Mamdani: We are encouraged by what we are hearing around Wall Street bonuses as well as by increased revenue. However, the scale of this deficit, of $12 billion, is such that it will not be covered no matter what that news is. And so while we appreciate it, while it will be helpful, it will still require structural solutions to ensure that we are back on a firm fiscal footing.
Question: For you, Mayor, obviously - and I guess if Sharif and Dean want to chime in - I know you've been critical of former Governor Cuomo for the money that was not given to New York City, but he has [not] been the governor since August 2021. What have your conversations been like with Governor Kathy Hochul about what the City is owed, while also knowing you need her buy-in to tax the wealthiest?
And additionally, I know you're here saying that you want to be as clear to New Yorkers as possible, but you're not really giving details on how you could and would make cuts, saying you're going to look inward. I guess it sounds like you're saying it sounds like therapy speak, but it's not really useful in practical terms for what the City and what New Yorkers - whether they're working class, the poorest or the wealthiest New Yorkers - could go through while you're trying to get this budget corrected. So, do you want to give more details?
Mayor Mamdani: We are going to deliver a preliminary budget on February 17th. And when we do so, that will be a budget that lays out the specifics of this. What we wanted to do is be very clear with New Yorkers as soon as the scale of this fiscal deficit came to our attention, what it was, how we got here. In the time between now and the release of that preliminary budget, we are going to be sharing additional specifics, not only in terms of the fiscal gap once these revenues are accounted for, once these Wall Street bonuses are accounted for, but also the kinds of savings that we are pursuing. And that specificity is going to be one that makes clear we are looking not only to protect and deliver public goods, but also public excellence, public efficiency. And that we are not going to allow for this kind of a fiscal crisis to be the justification for pulling back on the kinds of city services that New Yorkers so desperately and deeply deserve.
Question: Back to my first question. What have your conversations with Governor Hochul been like? Because hasn't she and her state budget been withholding funds from the City since 2022?
Mayor Mamdani: I've been encouraged by our conversations with Governor Hochul, and I've been encouraged also by the relationship that we are building, which is a different kind of relationship than one that's typically been the case between City Hall and Albany. And I continue to have a belief in our ability to meet this kind of a challenge and to do so with the scale of response that's necessary.
Question: So, you're saying here that you're planning to balance the budget in the prelim with efficiency. So, I guess I'm a little unclear. It doesn't really seem like a crisis if the budget is going to be balanced. So, my question is, if that's the case, why should the governor give you more money? Especially considering progressive taxation doesn't mean you get back what you pay, and a billionaire doesn't get more services because they pay more taxes than someone with lower income.
Mayor Mamdani: So, there's two things here. A $12 billion fiscal deficit cannot be resolved through efficiencies and savings. Part of our resolution of it will absolutely be interrogating every dollar that the City spends and ensuring that it's being spent effectively. However, that is one part. The other parts of this will also have to include changing that fiscal relationship with the state and changing the fiscal relationship with the wealthiest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations.
Question: There's a budget line in prelim that says, we expect X amount of money from the state. Is that going to help balance prelim?
Mayor Mamdani: We're going to give you the prelim details when we release the prelim, but what I can tell you is that this is going to require an all of the above approach to ensure that we are not only reckoning with a problem that has been pushed and pushed and pushed again, but also that we put ourselves in the kind of footing such that we're not here next year and the year after that. We need to resolve what has been years in the making, and we need to do so in a way that puts working New Yorkers first.
Question: Following up on Kate and Joe's question. You're sounding the alarm here. You're in the blue room with your First Deputy Mayor, your Budget Director. Can you not point to any efficiencies at this point with the budget, prelim budget, two weeks out, just over, that you would look to cut at this point? Any specific things as opposed to just, "We're looking at every dollar?" And going back to the conversations with Kathy Hochul, has she been - has she moved a little bit on this tax the rich? Because I was in Puerto Rico, and she says explicitly, "I'm not going to tax the rich," and calling me out for this is not the method that she - how she likes to work.
Mayor Mamdani: So, much of the work of the next few weeks is going to be assessing the full fiscal health of the city. I say the full fiscal health because what we are announcing today is that our early assessments are in line with that of city and state controllers. We're going to keep looking in and looking under the hood. There are a number of different things we're going to pursue for savings. I can give you one example as just a small glimpse into the kind of mismanagement we're seeing.
The previous administration had an AI chatbot that was functionally unusable. It was costing the administration around half a million dollars. That, in and of itself, is not something that can bridge this kind of a gap, but it's an indication of the ways in which money has been spent while refusing to account for the actual costs of what these programs are. So we're going to be honest about these costs. We're going to be direct about it. And we're also going to make clear the ways in which we actually get out of this crisis.
Question: This is like a massive budget gap. This [is] $12 billion. You still have to deliver a budget, a balanced budget in the next 17 days, 18 days now, whatever the date is now. So besides this $500,000, you know, this half a million chatbot, there has to be something. Are you looking at contracts with the DOE? Are we looking at contracts - what are we looking at here?
Mayor Mamdani: We are looking at every single dollar that the city spends. And we are looking at it because we know that the gross fiscal mismanagement that we have just made clear is one that extends beyond just these budgeting issues. It also presents us with opportunities for these kinds of efficiencies, for these kinds of savings, and that's what we're going to do over these next few weeks and then beyond through the budget process.
Question: [Inaudible] to raising the taxes on the ratio?
Mayor Mamdani: We are continuing to make clear what the city's needs are, and we are encouraged by the relationship that we're building not only with Governor Hochul but also with legislative leaders.
Question: Good afternoon, Mayor. Can you expound a bit more on how you would actually work on fixing this imbalance between the city and the state? Does this mean the city giving less? Does this mean Governor Hochul continuing to pick up the bill for more city initiatives like the expansion of universal child care? How do you actually get that fixed? What does it look like? And how do you convince lawmakers?
Mayor Mamdani: I think the fix is that New York City would be delivered what it is owed. We are speaking about a gap on an annual basis of about $8 billion as to the difference between what the city contributes to the revenues of the state versus what it receives back from the state. And what we have now is an opportunity to not only resolve this fiscal crisis, but also to put ourselves back on the firm fiscal footing that the city has been denied for many years.
Question: Anything in particular that you would want to see the state perhaps pick up the tab for here in New York City to help fix this imbalance?
Mayor Mamdani: I think we can find in Governor Cuomo's record a wide variety of examples of costs that had historically been borne by the state that then over a decade-long period were shifted back to the city.
Question: Mayor, as you know, public safety is a huge concern for New Yorkers. Are cuts to the NYPD on the table? As you know, they spend a lot of money on overtime.
Mayor Mamdani: Right now, we are not entertaining the idea of cuts. What we are talking about are savings and efficiencies that can be made, but not getting into the place where New Yorkers have to question whether essential quality services will be delivered to them. That will continue.
Question: I'm wondering, in a moment, if you could just give us an update if you have any new information on the cold weather deaths. But in the meantime, just first, under the current circumstances, do you need to revise any of the campaign promises that you made, which you estimated would cost some $10 billion, and that's before we even take into account the $12 billion out of balance that we're now facing?
Mayor Mamdani: We will not allow the failures of the prior administration to dull the ambitions of our own. And I am incredibly proud of the work that our team has done in tandem with the governor and the governor's team in starting to deliver on that agenda on day eight of this administration with more than a billion dollars secured towards universal childcare. And what we need to show is that we can reckon with the mismanagement of the past, deal with the issues of the present, and then still deliver a future that working New Yorkers are not priced out of.
Question: [Inaudible] if there's any new information you can share with us on the cold weather deaths.
Mayor Mamdani: There have been no additional outdoor deaths since we last spoke. Since last night, we have made about 30 additional placements. And we are suspecting at this time that of the 10 deaths that we have spoken about, that about seven had hypothermia playing a role. Of the 10 who had died, about six were known to the Department of Homeless Services. And I want to be very clear that I am going to defer to the medical examiner when it comes to the official cause of death. And just to lay out the timeline here, it takes about five to seven days after the autopsy is done for the medical examiner to be able to get bloodwork and other tests back and then be able to determine the cause of death. But I want to be very clear that, at this time, this is what we are suspecting played a role.
Question: Findings by the medical examiner? Is that what this is?
Mayor Mamdani: These are preliminary findings that have been shared with me. What I will also tell you is that yesterday evening, I went to Bellevue to a warming center, and then I joined a number of outreach workers on their shift. And sometimes the stories of homeless New Yorkers are lost in the statistics that tend to dominate the reports.
I met an older man who told me that he had lived not too far from me in Gracie Mansion, just a few blocks away, [and] had lived in an apartment for decades with his wife. And then she tragically passed away. And he said that he could not bear to smell her perfume in the lobby any longer. That it was causing him a heartbreak that was too much to experience every day. And so he left his apartment.
And he's now finding shelter in the Bellevue Hospital. I went out then with our outreach workers who operate in the most frigid of conditions. Three workers who every day are going out there to find homeless New Yorkers. And I got to observe the heroism that they display on a daily basis and the work that they do to try and connect homeless New Yorkers with shelter placements, with any kind of housing. And while we are continuing to do everything within our power, I also just have to say a note of gratitude for all those City workers who are the difference in this moment between those being outside and those coming inside.
Question: You've left Hochul, Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie out of your narrative here, putting it on Cuomo and Adams. But you've worked in Albany the past four years. You've seen how the budget is made. What will actually change this year? Because you're both asking for a tax increase and tax revenue and a fundamental shift in how the state funds the City. What happens if they say no?
Mayor Mamdani: I think what we are going to see is, for the first time in a long time, the mayor of our city, that I will be going to Albany to be honest, to be direct and to make the case. I can tell you as a legislator, it did not often feel that way, that we were hearing directly from the City about the scale of any crisis that it was facing. And so this is an opportunity to build on a new era of leadership to actually deliver to New Yorkers.
And we wanted to say this very clearly and directly to New Yorkers because this is the scale of the crisis at hand. We do not want to engage in the same kind of budget games of pushing expenses into other parts where people cannot see. We want to be very open and honest. This is what we're looking at. This is what we're seeing. And we're going to keep New Yorkers updated as we learn more and as we start to chart out our fiscal picture.
Question: I just want to really quick be clear. Are you asking for that $8 billion gap back from the state? And then I know on the campaign trail, you talked about disbanding the SRG. Is that an inefficiency? Could you see disbanding it? I believe that it would save the City, if we didn't have the SRG, like over $100 million.
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll start with the second question and then go to the first. Yes, I continue to believe that we need to disband the SRG. And I'm currently in conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we can do so that are operational. And I believe that we should do so not on the basis of any fiscal need, but frankly on the need to decouple the counterterrorism responsibilities within the department from police response to First Amendment exercise. And then your first question?
Question: So you said that there's an $8 billion gap in what we're giving and getting from the state. Are you asking fully for that $8 billion?
Mayor Mamdani: At this time, we are making clear the extent of the fiscal gap of $12 billion. We will be sharing additional information as to what the gap that needs to be fixed is for this fiscal year, for the next fiscal year that will take into account what some of the other questions have spoken about - the increased revenue projections as well as the Wall Street bonuses. No matter what those end up being, though we are encouraged by those reports, it is going to still require an all-of-the-above approach.
Question: If the SRG is disbanded, would it be replaced with a similar unit that does similar things that the police [do] at protests?
Mayor Mamdani: We don't believe that there should be a unit that has both counterterrorism responsibilities and responsibilities to responding to protests. The conflation of the two is part of this issue.
Question: Given what you're saying, did you know that the SRG was going to be at this anti-ICE protest just a few blocks away from here last night? Are you very concerned about that at all?
Mayor Mamdani: We know that until we deliver this in an operational manner, the SRG will continue to be used, and that is why we are hard at work to resolve this issue.
Question: Given that their focus is counterterrorism also, that you don't want them at protests for now, have you said that, and why not, if not?
Mayor Mamdani: The NYPD continues to respond to protests as is their responsibility, and we have also emphasized the need for all of those responses, as always, to be ones that respect New Yorkers' exercising of First Amendment activity. And I think that to add, that I also commend New Yorkers who exercise their constitutional right to protest, especially in bringing attention to the horrific abuses of ICE across this country, and I think especially right now in Minneapolis.
Question: A question about the governor. She said that she's averse to raising taxes on the rich because she said she doesn't need it to raise the revenue. Have you asked her for money if she seems to have a bunch of playing around to help build this gap?
Mayor Mamdani: We've been very open and honest with the governor and the governor's team, as well as with legislative leaders, as to the scale of this crisis and the need for us to respond to it in a manner that addresses the enormity of it. That will require increased revenue. It will require a new relationship with the state. It will also require the pursuit of savings and efficiencies.
Question: People are still frustrated with sidewalk and bus stop conditions three days after this snowstorm. The City delegates a lot of responsibility to property owners, who fulfill those obligations to varying degrees. But even if everything works perfectly, we still end up with situations where the crosswalks are impassable, bus stops are a mess, snowplows are plowing snow back onto the crosswalk, and then the property owners are shoveling it back into the street. Now that you have this storm under your belt, are you looking into any new ideas for snow clearing and dealing with future storms so people can walk, push strollers, use wheelchairs, move safely?
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. We will continue to look at every which way that we can deliver for New Yorkers. And we want to make sure that every single New Yorker, no matter their mode of transit, is getting that delivery from the City.
Question: Is what's happening right now working or do you think -
Mayor Mamdani: I think I can just give you some recent statistics of what we're talking about. As of 7:10 a.m. this morning, the DOT workers have cleared a total of 3,227 bus stop shelters, which is about 95 percent of the 3,400 bus stops with shelters. As you've said, property owners are responsible for the remaining thousands of bus stops. And what we are constantly looking at is how we can increase the level of service, frankly, whether it's DOT, whether it's DSNY, anything that [the] City government is doing in responding to a storm like this.
And I have to say that I have appreciated the immense amount of work from City workers as they have done over the course of these last few days, both in preparation, both in the moment, and now in the continuing cold front. And I think one thing that has complicated their work has been the fact that this snowstorm has then been followed by the kind of cold that the city has not seen in at least eight years. And that is going to continue to be a focus for us.
Question: It seemed like every year, multiple times during the last four years around budget time, we'd get a version of, from the administration [that] we have to make cuts. And then the City Council would come in and say, "No, according to our analysis, you know, we don't have to make these cuts," and things would be restored. Is that - was that, I get behind the scenes, was something else going on there? Was the public misled on those messages?
Mayor Mamdani: Mayor Adams' administration misled the public about the scale of the fiscal deficit. We are not talking about the kind of budget dance that has become endemic in any legislative and executive process. We're talking about a budget gap that eclipses that of the Great Recession.
We're talking about one that - I think it's 300 percent more than what we saw in pre-COVID years. This is the kind of gap that we can only end up with if the prior administration was intentionally pushing so much of its actual costs off the books. And we are now looking to be honest and open with New Yorkers as to the actual cost of city services and what it's going to take to get out of this.
Question: Mr. Mayor, from the state's perspective, the state levies taxes on wealthy people and businesses in New York City and uses some of that revenue to help poor people in Buffalo and Rochester outside of the New York City region. That's the state's progressive tax system. Are you saying we should only have a progressive tax system within the City and just forget these people in the rest of the state? Or should New York City's wealth help poorer people in the rest of the state?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it's critically important that we take care of needy New Yorkers across the state. I think what we are seeing, however, is that the intent of this cost shifting was not to take care of needy New Yorkers elsewhere. It was, in fact, to punish this city. And there is no other way to describe a chasm that grew so significantly over the course of a decade, and a desire to cost shift burdens that ranged from a wide variety of services, agencies, and departments. And I'm heartened by the fact that we have now an opportunity to chart a new kind of course. Thank you.
