After months of limbo and legal wrangling, Washington has unfrozen $205 million in funding for the Gateway project, reviving work on the $16 billion rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey that the Trump administration abruptly halted. Backed by…
Zohran Mamdani, New York City's mayor, has dangled a 9.5% property tax rise as his “last resort” should lawmakers refuse his proposed wealth tax, a policy pitched to patch a gaping municipal budget deficit. With City Hall’s coffers light and patience among homeowners lighter still, we are reminded that when searching for revenue, politicians rarely leave any stone—however expensive—unturned.
New York’s latest $4.5 billion proposal aims to tackle its perennial child care headache, which saps $23 billion from the city’s economy and pushes families—with annual care costs near $40,000—out of town. Home-based providers, mostly women of color, run 65% of the city’s licensed programs but earn barely minimum wage. More funding may help, but, as ever, bureaucracy and fine print threaten to outlast common sense.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani presented New York City’s preliminary budget, facing a $5.4 billion hole with two routes: tax hikes on the rich and corporations, or, failing Albany’s blessing, raising property taxes and tapping reserves. First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Budget Director Sherif Soliman discussed the fiscal puzzle on NY1, where optimism seemed, like the city’s coffers, in relatively short supply for now.
New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has unveiled the Healthy Families Act, which—if it ever escapes Congress’s to-do pile—would guarantee paid sick leave nationally, a right 27 million Americans currently lack. With workdays routinely lost to both viruses and red tape, Gillibrand and co-sponsor Bernie Sanders tout support from 88 unions and groups, banking on a future where the sniffles no longer threaten the rent.
In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a budget proposing property tax hikes unless Governor Kathy Hochul approves heavier levies on the rich—though she and city leaders remain unenthusiastic about all such tinkering. Facing a $5.4 billion two-year deficit, Mamdani seeks city agency cuts but refuses deeper trims, notably as NYPD spending rises. Various critics wonder if Gotham’s fiscal cliff might be more molehill than mountain.
New York’s Public Service Commission may hit pause on its ambitious climate law, the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, as upstate business groups and utility veterans cite a NYISO report warning of grid unreliability without fossil plants. Critics counter that the data ignore looming green megaprojects, like Canadian hydropower and offshore wind, but if nothing else, we now know even the Empire State’s ambitions face a reliability check.
Eric Goldwyn of NYU’s Marron Institute suggests New York could ease its housing crunch not by futzing with bus fares, but by splurging on subways; his “A Better Billion” report plots 12 projects, 64 stations, and 41 new miles of rail for the price of unlimited bus rides. Whether transit truly begets affordable paradise or merely more real estate headaches, we know which is better for one’s step count.
Faced with New York City’s gaping $5 billion budget hole, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s fallback on property tax hikes—a manoeuvre last seen bruising Michael Bloomberg—reminds us that budget math seldom makes friends. While he sidesteps six less divisive revenue plays, like metering more parking or monetising CUNY campus lots, we wonder if Mamdani prefers the pain of tradition to the perils of innovation—a classic case of squeezing stones instead of finding water.