When the City Council and Mayor Zohran Mamdani agreed on a $127 billion budget last June, the story behind the story was obvious.
The numbers for the fiscal year beginning last July 1 added up to a balanced budget, thanks to a flood of state aid and some fiscal gimmicks. And the plan projected a worrisome $6 billion hole for the next budget.
But when the mayor updates his budget later this week, he will be the beneficiary of two major developments that will ease his budget problems and, at the same time, get him closer to his long-cherished goal of a tax increase on the wealthy…