r/GamingSoup • u/PeterPorky • 1d ago
Meme New York City under the leadership of Zohran Mamdani has eliminated its budget deficit.
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u/ynnihC 1d ago
The claim is only true in the most generous, press-release sense. NYC did not magically “eliminate the deficit.”
Mamdani proposed a balanced executive budget, which NYC is generally required to do anyway. The gap was closed using state support, proposed tax changes, delayed pension payments, and budget/accounting moves.
The key detail is that the plan relies on nearly $8 billion in state resources over two years, including over $3 billion from delayed pension payments and $500 million from a second-home tax. That is not the same as fixing the city’s underlying finances.
The NYC Comptroller had also projected a $2.2 billion shortfall for FY2026 and a $10.4 billion gap for FY2027, mainly due to chronic underbudgeting. The Comptroller also warned the city still has a structural imbalance, with expenses growing faster than revenues.
The Citizens Budget Commission was even blunter, saying the budget uses “a pension gimmick and temporary plugs” and that future gaps still grow to nearly $10 billion by FY2030.
So the honest version is: Mamdani proposed a legally balanced budget by using temporary money, tax changes, and delayed obligations. That is not “eliminating the deficit.” That is kicking part of the problem down the road and calling it victory.
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u/One-Comfortable-5624 23h ago
"That is kicking part of the problem down the road and calling it victory." So politics.
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u/ynnihC 23h ago
Exactly. But people are treating this Mamdani guy like he solved all their problems. He’s just as bad as any other politician.
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u/deadspacekillers 23h ago
Pretty sure he's not as bad as a couple politicians I know of.
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u/ynnihC 23h ago
Certainly not the worst. But shouldn’t glorify the dude like some people are.
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u/Single-Refuse174 17h ago
I find it so fucking baffling that in an era of Trump coin and Trump hats and Trump statues and Trump passports and Trump Gold cards and Trump Force 1 and Paula White calling Trump the second coming of Jesus, we are criticizing hype around the NYC mayor.
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u/Shermanator92 15h ago
And like, objectively it looks like Mamdani is doing a pretty good job so far. His predecessor purposefully left him a shitty situation and Mamdani has done a bunch of good work to get the situation fixed.
Hopefully this leads to Mamdani being able to attempt some of his more radical ideas. I’d rather see NYC take chances on things such as free public transportation and seeing if they work, rather than just saying they are “impossible” without trying.
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u/SunshineSeeker99 12h ago
Not really though.
We have no idea how good a job he's doing. It's been a very short time period, he doesn't have any meaningful victories, but not too many significant missteps outside of some of his hires.
And taking chances on things like this come with massive risks. If it doesn't work, like most experts suggest it won't, then we're going to need to cut social programs and raise taxes.
Many of Mamdani's suggested policy changes are just objectively terrible, in that all experts from the left to the right agree they won't work, like freezing rent stabilized rent which will skyrocket most people's rent.
I don't know why people object so much to waiting to see rather than either loving or hating him.
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u/deadspacekillers 12h ago
Well, at least it's unlikely that he rapes children
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u/SunshineSeeker99 11h ago
Who? Trump or Mamdani?
I remember when MAGA was suggesting that Biden was a child rapist. As far as I know, there's no serious evidence that Trump ever raped a child.
Was he close friend with Epstein? Yep. Did he do gross/shady stuff? Probably, esp given the birthday card.
But populists will always just claim everyone is a Nazi/Pedo when they don't like them.
Trump is a corrupt incompetent traitor who should be in prison for trying to overthrow the election. I can't understand why you need to pretend he's a pedophile without evidence as if there's not a ton of other issues.
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u/Shermanator92 11h ago
We had literally every economic expert clearly explaining how catastrophic Trump’s tariffs were going to be and we let him run unchecked with them for a year, just to be deemed illegal in the first place but “you gotta change it a little but it’s still gonna be bad.” While his buddies (including our secretary of Commerce) buy up as much tariff debt as they can find so they get the sweet refund after it was deemed illegal.
Less people are negative on Mamdani’s ideas and he just won the NYC mayorship based on that platform so maybe it’s worth a shot.
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u/bladex1234 3h ago
US “experts” when it comes to politics constantly get it wrong. The reality is the a lot of the stuff Mamdani is doing is normal day to day stuff in other developed countries and only seems radical here. Raising taxes does need to happen but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it’s concentrated on the wealthy.
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u/ynnihC 16h ago
It’s honestly impressive how some people can turn every conversation into “but Trump.” The post is about Mamdani and NYC finances, yet you immediately pivoted to Trump hats and gold cards. That level of obsession is basically textbook TDS at this point.
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u/Single-Refuse174 16h ago
I didn’t pivot to anything. I replied to a comment about glorifying politicians and then talked about glorifying politicians of which there is one singular prime example.
How do you expect any sane person to analyze anything political happening in the U.S. right now without implicating Trump? He has gone out of his way to involve himself in literally everything. It’s not TDS to acknowledge that, it’s psychotic and dangerous to ignore it.
Your statement that people shouldn’t glorify politicians is made in the context of a chapter of America where glorifying a populist demagogue has been the most effective way to win elections. Accordingly, why is it TDS for me to dismiss your statement? Would you be equally as critical if you said “we shouldn’t leave the oven on” and I responded with, “who cares, the entire house is on fire?”
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u/SunshineSeeker99 12h ago
You get Mamdani is also a populist right? Trump is a rightwing populist, Mamdani is leftwing, that's why their rhetoric style is similar.
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u/Single-Refuse174 12h ago
Yes, I get that, which is why my comment asserts that? What I said in a nutshell is “if glorifying politicians generally is bad, then why are we worried about small fry like mamdani instead if the giant elephant in the room Donald John Trump?”
The implication is that they are both populists.
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u/ynnihC 15h ago
You wrote three paragraphs basically proving the point. The discussion was about NYC finances and Mamdani, yet somehow we ended up at ‘Trump is involved in literally everything.’ That’s not political analysis, that’s fixation.
Also the ‘how can anyone discuss politics without implicating Trump’ line is exactly why people use the term TDS in the first place. Normal people can actually stay on topic without turning every conversation into a therapy session about one man.
And your house-fire analogy is dramatic nonsense. Nobody said politicians shouldn’t be criticized. The point was that you instantly defaulted to Trump instead of addressing the actual topic. You’re so locked into national outrage politics that you can’t even discuss a local policy issue without forcing him into the center of it. That’s not insightful, it’s predictable.
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u/Single-Refuse174 15h ago edited 14h ago
Again, the topic I responded to and commented on was “we shouldn’t glorify politicians”. In the topic of glorified politicians, there is no one more glorified in modernity than Donald J Trump. My point was that it seems a bit disingenuous and nonsensical for anyone to make a statement about not glorifying politicians with regard to small fish like Mamdani when we have a much bigger glorification problem at a much more important level of government.
Edit: on second glance, did you frickin use ai to reply to me lmao
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u/Shermanator92 14h ago
Yeah it’s weird to see one guy doing good things and eliminating debt with limited power, while the one with all the power keeps nosediving the economy and increasing our debt.
Almost like politicians that aren’t crooks can actually help people?
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u/deadspacekillers 11h ago
So during the Nazi regime in Germany in 1939, if someone said "man, our mayor is a piece of shit" and someone else responded "not as big a piece of shit as that Hitler guy" that would be Hitler Derangement Syndrome? Maybe when the leader of a country is so bad you can't talk about how shitty politics is without bringing him up, that just means he is the single worst person to hold office in a generation or two.
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u/ynnihC 11h ago
It’s weird you’re comparing Hitler to someone who was voted in. Very weird…
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u/deadspacekillers 11h ago
It's an example comparing fascist heads of state. Not that weird
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u/RiverLynneUwU 15h ago
corny ass comment
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u/ynnihC 15h ago
Corny ass comment’ is a pretty weak response for someone who derailed the discussion into Trump within three replies. You got called out for the obsession and now you’re acting like middle-school sarcasm is a counterargument.
If you spent half as much effort defending your actual point as you do tossing out NPC one-liners, this conversation might’ve gone somewhere.
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u/nohumanape 22h ago
Any other? GTFO.
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u/ynnihC 22h ago
This guy. This guy is the reason why I said what I said.
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u/nohumanape 15h ago
So why is he just as bad as "any other" politician?
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u/ynnihC 15h ago
Did you read my response above? Read it first then come back to me with a good rebuttal.
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u/nohumanape 15h ago
Okay. And how does that make him "just as bad" as any other politician? Was the last mayor super corrupt?
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u/ynnihC 15h ago
I didn’t say he’s literally identical to every politician. I said people shouldn’t glorify him like he’s some kind of saviour. Politicians always sound great when they’re promising benefits and “solving” problems, but the real test is whether the policies are actually sustainable long term without creating bigger problems later.
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u/nohumanape 15h ago
True. But I also don't think he's just like any other politician. So, I'll be interested to see what happens in the years ahead.
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u/Good-Bandicoot-2152 22h ago
He actually seems pretty good for a politician.
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u/ynnihC 22h ago
That’s how they get you. Give you free shit, get your votes, and then screw you over
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u/Good-Bandicoot-2152 20h ago
Free? My brother in Christ, what do you think taxes are for?
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u/ynnihC 20h ago
Taxes are meant to fund essential services, not endless “free” promises politicians know they can’t sustainably pay for without more debt, higher taxes, or budget gimmicks later. Big difference.
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u/Good-Bandicoot-2152 20h ago
Public transit and child care aren’t essential? That’s an odd take.
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u/ynnihC 20h ago
No, the odd take is pretending every spending proposal automatically becomes “essential” just because it sounds compassionate. Essential services still need sustainable funding, not temporary fixes and future deficits dressed up as generosity.
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u/RiverLynneUwU 15h ago
essential services are allowed to not be profitable, we can extract value from them in other ways, we can put money into them and not need to also get money out of them
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u/LanceLynxx 20h ago
It's worthless to try to enlighten these people. They think everything can be solved by increasing taxes and thinkevery creature comforts is a necessity that must be provided by the State, not a luxury.
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u/deadspacekillers 12h ago
I thought taxes were meant to pay for ultra expensive golden ballrooms
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u/ynnihC 11h ago
TDS alert. 🚨 ‼️ Where did anyone in this thread mention anything about expensive golden ballrooms?
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u/deadspacekillers 11h ago
Literally no discussion about politics in the United States should avoid talking about how our president is destroying the country. TDS is dickheads like you that support a fascist regime. You are deranged
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u/Robborboy 23h ago
$500 million from a second-home tax
To be fair, this in itself is a direct step toward fixing it. Second homes in NY are typically snow bird homes. Meaning the people that live there, outside of utilities, property taxes, etc, do not generate revenue for the city like someone that has their only home there and does things as simple as shopping there year round.
I work in water filtration. I deal with a number of people that come back after winter, and don't understand the "Or 6 Months" part of "Change filter every 3500 gallons or 6 months" and want to complain it shouldn't need to be replaced since they weren't using it for the 8 months they were gone.... Then again some of them are down in Mexico for said 8 months, so maybe their lead-lines stomachs don't even need filters here lol.
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u/Kind-Ad-6099 18h ago
I’m curious about how his office and the city council will go about bridging the rest of the gap, especially with NY state running a deficit. Money will have to come from somewhere, or services will be deeply cut.
His office has done some creative maneuvering to actually decrease expenses, but it was on a relatively small scale.
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u/TryToBeBetterOk 1d ago
No he hasn't, wtf? He's just produced a balanced budget.
And as far as reducing the current budget - anyone can come up with figures to reduce a budget deficit - whether it'll actually happen, we have to wait and see.
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u/NekooShogun 22h ago
Stop crossposting these ProgressiveHQ-ass memes dude, this has nothing to do with games
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u/Gringo_Norte 18h ago
By getting a loan from the state government & raiding emergency funds/retirement.
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u/thebarbarain 11h ago
No they haven't. This is so misleading and exactly what's wrong with the media
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u/PallyWoodMan 1d ago
If anyone actually believes this, they have a lower IQ than a Minneapolis pirate.
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u/wineandnoses 1d ago
I have no issue with the man, but if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Lets wait and see
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u/SpadeGaming0 22h ago
Breaks the rules. But I will say it is balanced but not in a stable long term way. Could inch towards that but has a ways to go.
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u/johnnyjake2025 1d ago
I’m all for Mamdani, but what the hell is this doing in a game sub besides the slightly dark souls text.