Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s math projecting a $5.4 billion budget deficit is coming under increased scrutiny — as his fiscal team no-showed the start of spending negotiations with the City Council for the first time in decades Wednesday.
The questionable calculations in part come from Mamdani’s refusal to include significant cuts in his behemoth $127 billion proposed budget, City Comptroller Mark Levine testified to the council Wednesday.
Levine argued Mamdani’s record-breaking budget should have cut more than $6 billion through efficiencies and rolling back soaring social services, but the socialist mayor ultimately opted to let spending balloon.
“Here’s what we see: New York City is, quite simply, spending more than it takes it,” Levine testified…