MESSAGE
| DATE | 2026-04-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Mamdani and the working man
|
Mamdani's plan to delay pension payments echoes the schemes that brought
NYC to near bankruptcy
Post Editorial Board
~3 minutes
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a podium in front of a
giant soccer ball.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks in front of a large soccer
ball during a news conference in the Staten Island borough of New York,
Monday, April 27, 2026. AP
Despite a $7.1 billion hole, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pushed back
against any serious cutting to his budget and instead wants to delay
required payments to city pension funds.
That’s precisely the kind of tactics that brought the city to the brink
of bankruptcy in the ’70s.
At the least, it will saddle future taxpayers with unnecessary costs.
For the moment, the city is on-track to meeting its long-term
pension-funding obligations by its 2032 deadline.
Yet to help close his budget hole, Mamdani would push $1 billion worth
of payments into the 2040s.
That would be both costly and risky.
It would leave the fund less sound as it strives to cover future pension
payments to municipal retirees (which by law are backed by taxpayers).
And it would saddle future city budgets with added costs.
As the Citizens Budget Commission’s Andrew Rein warns, such a move would
force “our children [to] pay even more of our bills.”
Meanwhile, Hizzoner’s budget clocks in at a whopping $127 billion.
Budget hawks might call that a target-rich environment.
The mayor has promised to find $1.7 billion in savings from his
agencies; if Albany allows a delay of its class-size mandate, saving
$1.4 billion, and the city is able to spend less on housing vouchers,
representing another $1.3 billion, that would cover some of the shortfall.
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Those are big ifs, but it’s a start. And there’s surely plenty more that
can and should be cut before resorting to financial gimmicks, like
delaying pension payments.
Again, the city used just that kind of move for years — spending more
than City Hall raked in revenue — until it nearly went broke, with no
one rushing to bail it out.
Mamdani needs to learn from that lesson, play by the rules and stop
thinking about how to spend more than he’s got.
For all his socialist dreams, he still needs to deal with reality. Or
the city will pay the price.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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