Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first executive budget proposal pulls off what seems to be a fiscal miracle by closing what in December was projected to be a huge $12 billion budget gap without raising property taxes, dipping into reserves or cutting services.

But the budget is hardly a symbol of fiscal rectitude. It relies on billions of dollars in one-shot or short-term money to fund permanent programs, it stretches out pension payments so the next generation will pay for the retirements of present-day workers and it projects a $7 billion deficit for the 2028 fiscal year that will need to be closed just one year from now.

One sign of the problem: The mayor did not mention the deficits in future budgets in his presentation Tuesday of the $124.7 billion budget. Fiscal experts say they do not remember a time when a mayor didn’t acknowledge future year problems.

“Unlike pickles, budget balancing strategies aren’t good when they are half sour,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

The executive budget is the penultimate step in the city’s budget process and kicks off negotiations with the City Council with a final budget agreement due by June 30. 

Historically, the Council adds money to the budget, usually about $500 million each year, but the mayor appears to be trying to avoid that by increasing money for parks, libraries and CUNY, which are usually the top of the council’s priority list.

The mayor was able to close the budget deficit because Gov. Kathy Hochul both provided billions of dollars in additional funds — including authorizing a new pied-à-terre tax  on luxury second homes — and delayed a costly mandate for the city to reduce class sizes.

Much of the money is short-term. 

For example, the governor has promised $1.6 billion for only the first two years of the rollout of Pre-K for three-year-olds and expansion of the slots for four-year-olds. There is no money for future years when the program is expected to be growing rapidly.

Other so-called one-shots — meaning revenue for only one year is being used to support spending that is expected to continue in the future — include something called budget accruals.

The administration says it’s found $1.2 billion in money the city had set aside to pay old expenses that it won’t need to use for that purpose. The money will be used in 2027 to balance the budget — but it won’t be available in future years.

One-shots amount to $2.8 billion, Comptroller Mark Levine estimates, one major factor in why the budget deficit for the 2028 fiscal year is still so large.

The savings for delaying pension payments is particularly egregious for people who care about best budget practices. Unlike the state, whose pension system is fully funded because it makes the required payments each year, the city needs to deposit extra money each year to make up for years when it did not fully meet its obligations.

The pension deal agreed to by the mayor and the governor evens out volatile annual payments to allow more predictable budgeting. But it also stretches those extra payments out into the future, saving $2.3 billion in next year’s budget.

“Extending the amortization period for pension payments creates a debt that’s more expensive than muni bonds,” William Glasgall, an expert in public finances at the Volcker Alliance, said, referring to municipal bonds. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for today’s savings well into the 2030s.

What this budget does by relying on short-term fixes is set up yet another push for the mayor’s campaign promises to tax the rich next year, after the mid-term elections. 

Hochul is up for reelection in November, while the local impact of President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill will really start hitting home in 2027.

“We have known ever since the child care funding announcement that we will need future revenues,” said Emily Eisner, interim director of the progressive Fiscal Policy Institute, which has been aggressively supporting tax increases. “The governor is interested in avoiding taxes in a significant way before November but they are more likely after the election, especially since the major strains from the One Big Beautiful Bill don’t hit until next year.”

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani dropped his threat to hike property taxes as a way to close the budget gap after Gov. Kathy Hochul promised additional aid for his $124.5 billion spending plan.

The city budget includes an additional $4 billion in support to close the gap, totaling nearly $8 billion over two years.

That money is through $352 million in direct aid, $3.2 billion from programs that require state authorization and $500 million in new revenue — enough to close the $12 billion budget gap for the next two fiscal years that Mamdani inherited from his predecessor.

“I am proud to announce that we have closed the gap entirely, down to zero,” the mayor said at a press conference Tuesday.

“It hasn’t been easy but we have balanced the budget and we have done so without placing the burden on the backs of working New Yorkers.”

The mayor thanked Hochul, State Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Assembly Majority Carl Heastie and Council Speaker Julie Menin for their help and partnership, along with “the movement that carried us to City Hall.”

The budget, he said, “is evidence of a new era of government in our city, one that can balance both ambition and fiscal responsibility.”

The mayor’s budget manages to close a $5.6 billion shortfall for this fiscal year and an estimated $7 billion gap for next year without new income taxes for the wealthy and for corporations that he had demanded from Albany, and without raiding the city’s financial reserves. 

Jabs at the Wealthy

But Mamdani said they are taxing the rich through other changes, like a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes that is estimated to bring in $500 million in new revenue. 

There is also a proposal to reduce the Unincorporated Business Tax credit, known as UBT, which he noted mostly benefits millionaires. Reducing the tax credit will bring in an estimated $68 million, according to the mayor. 

“These are common sense measures,” he said. “Working New Yorkers cannot be asked to sacrifice as we sit in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”

Pension Moves

Other revenue and savings comes from the state taking over expenses that shifted to the city years ago, like line of duty death benefits for families of first responders killed on the job, saving the city $202 million. There’s also an additional $600 million in youth programming and $300 million to restore money for sales tax intercepts.

The city will also seek state approval for pension amortization, which could save more than $2 billion by restructuring some payments over the next two years, which Mamdani assured wouldn’t affect benefits for current or retired city workers.

“I think there’s a logic to smoothing out payments,” city Comptroller Mark Levine said Tuesday morning after a budget briefing with the mayor and his team. 

“I think it’s easier to plan for the long term when you have a smooth payment schedule.”

More than $1 billion in savings comes through a delay in the state’s mandated cap on class sizes which would require hiring more teachers and administrators. Last year, the city approved hiring 3,700 more teachers and 100 more assistant principals.

Mamdani added more money to hire 1,000 additional teachers and $1.5 billion to the $7.6 billion existing budget for the School Construction Authority’s five-year capital plan.

The mayor is also working to rein in spending on some students whose private school tuition is paid for by the city when it’s found they can’t receive the same special education services at public schools. 

The cost of what’s known as “Carter” and “Connors” cases – depending on how the money is paid out – has increased 300% over the last decade, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. Tuition costs can go as high as $144,000 per student.

To address this rising number of students, the Department of Education will invest more money in special education needs, like speech and occupational therapy, the mayor said.

Another major rising cost to the city’s budget is housing vouchers, specifically through the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or FHEPS, program. 

The mayor is fighting a legal battle against implementing a package of laws the City Council passed in 2023 to expand eligibility for the vouchers. He promised to put the laws into effect as a candidate, but reversed once he took office due to budget pressures. 

Around 68,000 households rely on CityFHEPS vouchers, while another 47,000 could end up depending on the program if it’s expanded.

Mamdani plans to save $519 million within CityFHEPS, mostly through administrative changes, he said. 

The mayor announced new spending in his budget, including $40 million for the Office of Community Safety and $26 million towards hate crime prevention.

‘Conservative’ on New Spending

Levine, the comptroller, said there was a lot of “good news in this budget” but he was still cautious.

“We are entering into very uncertain economic times because of the threat of a recession and the impact of AI, and I want us to build a very strong fiscal foundation that grows reserves,” he said.

“There still is a reliance on a number of one-shot measures, and those are tools that are then going to be off the table next year. And we are looking at about a $7 billion shortfall for the following fiscal year.”

Levine did praise the mayor for his “pretty modest” additional spending.

Some of the additional money includes $31.7 million to the three library systems, $15 million to the Parks Department, $10 million to cultural organizations and $15 million to the City University of New York.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen a mayor be this conservative on new spending,” Levine said about the spending. “It reflects why we’re in a better place today than we were in February.”

Mamdani had floated a property tax increase as a last-resort option to raise money to fill the gap, as Gov. Hochul continued to resist raising taxes.

Raising the property tax rate, which has not been done since Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is one of the few levers the mayor has to raise revenue. It was met with immediate backlash and was unlikely to pass in the Council. 

Hochul’s help to the city benefits the whole state, she said at an unrelated event Monday.

“He inherited a pretty significant financial mess,” Hochul said. 

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took a cautious approach to the promised state aid.

“I think until that budget is passed, you don’t know if all that money is real,” he said following his briefing.

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As Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushes a transit agenda centered on speeding the country’s slowest buses, he has less than a month to fill a pair of longstanding vacancies on the MTA board.

The mayor has just four seats on the panel that sets fares, operating and capital budgets for a regional transportation authority that is largely under the control of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Mamdani’s recommendations must be submitted to Hochul, who appoints the head of the MTA and has six board members of her own, and then approved by the State Senate before the Albany legislative session ends June 4.

The new mayor has already tapped a new “bus czar” to lead his pro-bus agenda at City Hall. Now, he has to make his first appointments to the MTA board.

“Having someone who is reflective of his values and adding another member of his administration to voice his interests and his concerns is going to be helpful to the many people who are depending on buses,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.  

The 23-member board also includes members selected by each of the county executives from the seven suburban counties served by the MTA’s commuter railroads, as well as six non-voting representatives from labor unions and commuter councils.

Polly Trottenberg, who was on the MTA board from 2014 to 2019 while she led the city’s Transportation Department, said the mayoral appointments play a vital role even if they are outnumbered.

“Who the mayor picks is important,” Trottenberg said. “What I found in my time is that you don’t always have the votes, but you always have the bully pulpit.”

Once confirmed, Mamdani’s recommendations would fill spots that have been vacant for months. Meera Joshi, a former deputy mayor under Eric Adams, left last June, while another Adams pick, Midori Valdivia, resigned in March, after Mamdani appointed her as commissioner and chair of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Even with the competing interests on the board, Mamdani’s picks are seen as key to advancing his top transportation priorities, including transit affordability and the acceleration of slow-moving buses, which plodded along at a citywide average of 8.3 mph in March, according to MTA data.

The new board members would join mayoral holdovers David Jones, who has been on the board since the de Blasio administration, and Dan Garodnick, the former director of the Department of City Planning who was recommended for the MTA board in 2024 by then-Mayor Adams.

Jones, chief executive of the nonprofit Community Service Society, began pushing more than a decade ago for the creation of Fair Fares, the city-run program that launched in 2019 offering half-off fares to low-income New Yorkers. Jones also frequently uses his spot on the MTA board to speak out against alleged racial disparities in the NYPD’s policing of fare evasion in the transit system.

But even with the deadline fast approaching, Mamdani isn’t tipping his hand on his own picks or the fine print of his transit plans, even as the city’s Department of Transportation has launched a series of bus- and bike-lane expansions that had been languishing under the previous mayor.

“New Yorkers deserve a public transit system that is affordable, reliable and accountable to the people who depend on it every day,” Mamdani spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said in a statement. “Dan Garodnick and David Jones have been important partners in advancing that work alongside the city and we’re grateful for their service to the MTA board.”

“We’ll have more to share soon about the future of these appointments and our broader vision for public transit in New York,” he added.

Advocates and former MTA board members said there is a vital role for the mayoral picks, especially when the city’s priorities clash with those of the governor.

“It clearly is a place where the mayor can make the case for what he wants to do and argue forcefully and be able to engage in a discussion over how the transit should be delivered in the city,” said Bob Linn, former commissioner of the city’s Office of Labor Relations, who was on the MTA board from 2019 through 2022.

Veronica Vanterpool, who served on the MTA board from 2016 to 2019, said that the elected officials who pick prospective MTA board members must focus on “selecting the right individuals” to be “vocal advocates” for whatever transit issues they wish to champion.

“It’s not useful if whomever is put on the board is not a vocal advocate for the priorities,” Vanterpool said.

The latter half of Mamdani’s transit priorities — to eventually eliminate bus fares — has been met with resistance from Hochul as well as MTA Chairperson and Chief Executive Janno Lieber, even as the transit chief has praised Mamdani for being a “truly pro-transit mayor.” Some City Council members have also pushed to expand Fair Fares over the fare-free buses proposal.

But overall, the dealings between the state and the city on transportation matters are in contrast to those under previous administrations in Albany and at City Hall.

“It could be contentious between the mayor and the governor,” Trottenberg said, recalling the frequent clashes between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio. “It’s a much more collaborative relationship now between the city and the state and that, I think, is reflected in the MTA board.”

When Cuomo was governor and a forceful presence at the MTA, de Blasio’s board members frequently pushed back against some of his priorities. That included criticism of the costs for a Cuomo plan to overhaul Penn Station and several subway station renovations that did not include the installation of elevators.

“None of us were shy about taking a difficult stance or position on an action,” Vanterpool said. “None of us were shy about asking questions that were challenging. None of us were shy about indicating what the priorities of New York City were.”

Andrew Albert, who has sat on the MTA board since 2002 as a non-voting representative for the New York City Transit Riders Council, said that even occasional flare-ups between board members can be useful for the transit network and its riders.

“Everyone wants to see the best system that we possibly can,” he said. “And everyone wants to have it financed the best that it can be.”

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In its first vote under a new mayor, the Rent Guidelines Board left the door open for a rent increase despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise of a price freeze for a million rent-stabilized tenants in New York.

The board approved a range of possible rent levels in its preliminary vote: 0 to 2% for one-year leases and between 0 to 4% for two-year leases.

The nine-member Rent Guidelines Board — six of which had been appointed by the new mayor earlier this year — settled on those figures during a rowdy hearing at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City on Thursday evening.

The vote was nonbinding. The board must by law take a final vote by the end of June.

Tenant groups and labor organizations that filled the auditorium loudly booed and demanded that the members roll back the preliminary vote that passed after all motions for a rent freeze failed. 

They rallied before the vote took place outside the college, holding “Freeze the Rent” signs and demanding a halt on price increases for stabilized tenants.

Mamdani made a promised rent freeze a signature part of his campaign. The members of the board are charged to act independently from City Hall, but the rent freeze commitment looms over their vote.

Tenant-aligned board members attempted to pass a range that would have either rolled back rent or frozen it, with a proposed rent level of -3 to 0% on one-year leases and -4.5 to 0% on two-year leases. That measure failed. Afterwards, members aligned with landlords floated higher ranges: a 3 to 5.5% increase on one-year leases and 6 to 8% on two-year leases. That idea also failed to pass.

“I was very disappointed to hear the possibility that rent will still go up, particularly since we were promised a freeze,” said Douglas Ostling, 78, of Flushing, after the hearing. “I’ve lived in the city all my life. I love it, but I’m being priced out of it, and if something doesn’t change quickly, I’m going to have to move.”

In the coming weeks, the RGB will host five sessions to hear testimony from the public on the proposed rent increases before taking a final vote on June 25.

In a statement delivered after tonight’s preliminary vote, the mayor encouraged New Yorkers’ to participate in the upcoming sessions.

“New Yorkers are being crushed by the cost of living, and they need real relief,” the mayor said. “As the RGB begins its public hearings, tenants, owners and New Yorkers from every borough should make their voices heard and speak directly to what this housing crisis looks like in their lives.” 

“I’m confident the board will weigh those perspectives carefully and arrive at a decision later this summer that reflects the urgency of this moment,” he continued.

In considering how much to jack up rent, the law requires the board members to take into account data on tenant and landlord finances.

According to reports prepared by board staff, landlord income was up 6% in 2024, the latest year for which it was studied, but varied widely based on the location and age of the building stock. At the same time, landlords’ costs outpaced inflation between 2025 and 2026.

On the tenants’ side, RGB research showed the median renter income grew by just 1.8% adjusted for inflation. Renters in all boroughs except The Bronx saw their incomes increase. More than half of renter households paid more than a third of their income in rent — placing them into a category known by housing experts as “rent-burdened.” 

Historically, landlords have said that hikes approved by the RGB are not high enough to cover the expenses of maintaining their buildings, while tenants said they’re financially squeezed and can’t afford to pay more.

That played out last year, when the board voted on rent increases of 3% for one-year leases and 4.5% for two-year leases, after previously weighing hikes between 1.75% and 4.75% for one-year leases and 3.75% and 7.75% for two-year leases.

“We’ve been here every year, but this year feels different,” said Kit Klee, an organizer with the tenant group CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Astoria and appeared hopeful for a rent freeze before the vote took place.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced a $268 billion state budget deal but the state assembly speaker shot back, saying there was no agreement.

Hochul said the disputed New York state budget agreement included a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, investments in universal child care and more money for police officers on the subway. Her budget did not appear to include additional additional cash to help New York City fix its $5.4 billion deficit.

But Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie later told reporters Hochul had jumped the gun.

“There is no budget deal,” Heastie said, adding, “I don’t care what the governor says.”

“I said to her last night I was comfortable with her saying to y’all we were close  — it is close,” Heastie, of The Bronx, said. “But this is what’s wrong with this process. It’s like, ‘I’m gonna only talk about policy and when I think the legislature is giving me what I want on policy, then we’ll talk about money.’”

Heastie said he planned to send his members home on Thursday.

“We signed off on nothing major,” he said. “I’m never doing this again. Budgets are supposed to be about money, not policy.”

Hochul had no immediate comment.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger, said the budget snafu reminded him of the reality show “Deal or No Deal.”

“This is the left hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” he said of the intraparty squabbling. “The fact of the matter is it’s the height of incompetence, it’s a lack of leadership.”

Budget One Month Late

Hochul’s budget, which was due April 1, is $13 billion more than last year’s and $8 billion more than Hochul initially proposed.

The “general agreement” on the budget was still light on details as the legislature will continue to go over the proposal in the coming days, the governor said.

“I’m not going to mince the words. The negotiations were not easy,” Hochul said.

“There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome, and the dysfunction out of Washington certainly doesn’t help.”

Here’s what we know about the state budget deal:

• The governor said legislators are finalizing details of on a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes to help “close the city’s budget gap without eroding its tax base or burdening hard-working New Yorkers.”

• Hochul said the budget includes her proposal to streamline environmental reviews for housing developments, letting some projects skip a 51-year-old state law requiring an extensive review that often holds up construction. 

• And the budget includes a “super speeder” bill which would require drivers with 16 or more speed-camera tickets over a year to install a device that would limit the car’s speed based on the local speed limit. 

Unanswered Questions

While the top question on Thursday was what led to the public breakdown between Hochul and Heastie — and when a proper deal might emerge — the details of key provisions were still up in the air.

• That second-home tax: It remains to be seen how the pied-à-terre tax would work. Specifically, how would the “value” of a second home be measured? Market values change, and assessed values are wildly out of whack, which could leave many lux pads out. There’s also a question about how to tax second homes owned by LLCs or shell companies. 
• Pension reforms: Hochul teased that she was scaling back plans to enact sweeping pension reform for the more than 700,000 public sector workers on what is called Tier 6, who receive smaller pension benefits than employees hired before 2012. Unions want changes that would cost $1.5 billion a year. It’s not clear how much — or how little — Hochul and the legislature are prepared to expand Tier 6 benefits. 
• Climate law: With qualms about affordability and facing headwinds from the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy projects, Hochul has made no secret that she’d like to weaken the state’s ambitious 2019 climate law. Under the budget deal, the governor can now implement those regulations in 2028, while using a different formula to count emissions — making it easier for the state to hit its reduction targets.

Hochul to City: I’ve Done Plenty

Hochul’s announcement did not include additional commitments of state funds for the cash-strapped city. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin last week pitched the state on a change to the pass-through entity tax, or PTET, which lets some business people keep state and local tax deductions that were limited by a 2017 federal law. They believe those changes could bring in $1 billion in revenue.

Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, immediately shot it down, and didn’t say whether the proposed budget includes any more of a bailout for the city. 

On Friday, she defended what she’s already doing for the five boroughs, pointing to more than $1 billion to support universal childcare and another $1.5 billion to help close the gap.

“We’ve been asked to do a lot for the city, we’ve given unprecedented amounts of support for the city,” she said.

The City Council approved an extension for Mayor Mamdani’s executive budget, which was due around May 1, because of the tardiness of the state’s budget. 

On Thursday, the mayor – a former state assemblymember –  said he planned to release his executive budget next week as planned. And he expected the city would get what it needed to help close the budget gap.

“I’m feeling hopeful about the direction of those negotiations,” he said at an unrelated press conference. “Those were productive conversations.”

Contributing: Samantha Maldonado, Claudia Irizarry Aponte.

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An ICE agent appeared to tase a man several times while another agent tried to forcefully drag him out of his car as the man screams in pain and begs for help, as captured in a video obtained by THE CITY.

ICE agents later took that man to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center for medical treatment, in what became a tense, hours-long standoff Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning, with protesters and NYPD officers outside the hospital.

In a statement sent hours after THE CITY first published this story, an unnamed spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that the man had been tased. “This criminal was NOT tased by law enforcement,” he wrote.  

The video, captured by bystanders, shows a masked agent appearing to fire a taser at the man, who is seated in the driver’s seat of a white car with the door open. The man screams in pain as popping sounds are heard, while repeatedly asking to talk to a lawyer and pleading for help from nearby witnesses. 

At one point the agent appears to use a knife to cut the man’s seatbelt. 

“Somebody help me,” the man can be heard screaming. “They are killing me.”

A subsequent video shows the man lying on the ground continuing to scream as agents handcuff him.

On Sunday, an unnamed spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security had identified the man arrested that night as a Nigerian national named Chidozie Wilson Okeke, who they said had prior arrests for assault and criminal drug possession and had overstayed a tourist visa. 

The spokesperson said Okeke “became physically combative attempting to punch and elbow ICE officers” and had “refused to comply with officers’ lawful commands to exit the vehicle and weaponized his vehicle to attempt to hit ICE officers.”

“Our officers followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to make the arrest,” the spokesperson, who declined to be named, said.

Ivan Carrion, a 35-year-old who lives on the block, said he heard a car window smash from his apartment above in the late afternoon Saturday and rushed to the window to see what was going on.

“They were choking him, hitting him, trying to get him out of the car,” and the agents had bashed his car window, Carrion said. 

The struggle went on for  minutes, he recalled, while the man screamed in pain. Eventually the agents handcuffed the man and drove him away in another vehicle, as one of the agents jumped into the man’s car and drove it away.

“I just didn’t know they were able to forcefully force themselves into somebody’s car and pull him out like that,” he told THE CITY on Monday. “I never seen that before.”

Two days after the arrest, crumbled glass from the car window still lay strewn on the roadway. 

An NYPD spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment on Okeke’s arrest history right away.

Okeke’s arrest precipitated a chaotic standoff outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center when activists got word of ICE’s presence at the hospital and rushed to the scene.

As the demonstrators arrived, federal agents pepper-sprayed several of them, eyewitnesses told THE CITY. While agents were inside with Okeke, who was being treated in the emergency room, the crowd of protesters grew, staying outside the hospital until early morning Sunday.

“There is an ICE agent detaining your neighbors inside,” one demonstrator chanted to the crowd. “Your neighbor is currently being abducted.”

At one point, an agent left the hospital in a sedan — speeding through a crowd of demonstrators trying to block the car. Later, at around 2 a.m., video from FreedomNewsTV showed the ICE agents dragging Okeke out of the hospital in handcuffs and thrusting him into a car, while NYPD officers cleared the way from the raucous crowd. 

An unnamed NYPD spokesperson said they’d arrested nine people over the course of the evening, charging eight with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration while giving a ninth person a summons. 

Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who was outside the hospital until early Sunday morning said she witnessed what “appeared to be direct coordination between ICE and the NYPD, with officers cordoning off the ambulance bay to allow ICE to move the individual into their vehicles and leave.”

A spokesperson for the NYPD said they did not participate in the earlier ICE operation.

Asked about the situation at a press conference Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said “NYPD officers were not dispatched to the hospital to participate or facilitate an ICE operation. Rather, they were responding to 911 calls regarding a protest outside of the hospital.”

“And as I’ve made very clear that our laws leave nothing, no room for interpretation about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement,” Mamdani said, calling ICE raids cruel and inhumane.

Murad Awawdeh, the President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, denounced the violent arrest and called for an investigation into how the NYPD handled the situation. 

“ICE has put New Yorkers in the hospital through their violent and unlawful tactics – and DHS constantly lies to the American public to justify terrorizing, brutalizing, and even killing people,” he said. 

“This weekend, when a New Yorker was put in the hospital by ICE – while he repeatedly asked to speak to his lawyer – they once again showed their disregard for the law and their disrespect for immigrant New Yorkers’ lives.”

Katie Honan contributed additional reporting.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article said that ICE agents had tased Okeke. ICE has since denied he was tased.

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Here’s what brown can do for you: turn commuting on the country’s pokiest buses into even more of a slog.

UPS trucks were flagged more than 25,000 times last year for obstructing New York City bus lanes, MTA data reveals. That’s nearly twice as many as Amazon, whose 12,975 violations ranked second.

The images of bus-lane blockers were captured by automated camera enforcement, a system now in use on buses that run along 60 MTA routes.

The penalties against UPS — whose slogan was once “What can brown do for you?” — far outnumber Frito-Lay, Verizon, FedEx and Con Edison on the list of businesses caught obstructing bus lanes the most.

“These companies seem to have made illegal parking — especially blocking the bus lanes — part of their business model,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, told THE CITY. “It’s time to motivate them to get over that bad habit.”

UPS did not respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives for most of the other companies. 

The push to get vehicles out of bus lanes comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly pledged to make buses faster and after he brought in a new adviser for his “fast and free” buses campaign this week.

The top 25 bus-lane intruders last year combined for close to 130,000 violations, according to numbers provided to THE CITY. Frito-Lay trucks received 6,740 violations, Verizon vehicles were caught by the cameras 5,669 times, while FedEx and Con Edison were respectively hit with 4,240 and 3,546 violations.

In all, 843,000 violations were issued for bus lane blockers in 2025, according to a September report by the city Department of Finance.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company works with more than 40 locally owned and operated delivery service partners that are responsible for day-to-day operations. The independent businesses employ more than 5,000 workers to make deliveries across the city.

“We expect all delivery partners to comply with local traffic regulations, and we’re investing in long-term solutions, including fleet electrification, e-bike and walker programs to reduce our impact on city streets and be a good neighbor,” said spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett.

A Con Edison spokesperson noted that the utility’s crews operate around the clock as part of the city’s emergency response network.

“At times, that work requires prioritizing safety access over parking regulations,” said spokesperson Anne Marie Corbalis. “While safety always comes first, we work to minimize disruptions whenever possible.”

When buses on a route are equipped with cameras, there is a 60-day warning period before motorists begin racking up fines. 

The violations were most common along the M101, where more than 50,000 violations were issued along the route that runs between the East Village and Upper Manhattan. Just under 41,000 bus-lane blockers were flagged along the M15, which links East Harlem and South Ferry. On the Bx19, which runs between the New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx and Riverbank State Park in Manhattan, close to 23,000 violations were cited. 

“Our hope is that the [automated camera enforcement] program won’t be just another fee that these companies see as a cost of doing business in New York,” said Brian Fritsch, associate director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “I hope that they realize these are their workers trying to get to and from work.”

The penalties kick in once a vehicle is caught on camera twice for standing in a bus lane for longer than five minutes, with the initial $50 fine matched for each additional violation, up to a maximum of $250. Vehicles can also get flagged if they are observed blocking bus stops twice for more than two-and-a-half minutes.

A Fine Mess

Altogether, the city issued $54.9 million in fines for bus-lane violations in Fiscal Year 2025, just under 5% of the $1.1 billion in overall penalties for parking and camera violations.

That’s a fraction of the $244.1 million in fines issued for speeding in school zones, according to the September Department of Finance report. 

Department of Transportation officials said that ongoing and planned street redesigns — including some that will place bus lanes in the middle of busy thoroughfares and not at curbside — are key factors in curbing bus-blocking violations and accelerating service.

“ACE enforcement is remarkably successful at changing driver behavior, with just 5% of vehicles receiving more than two violations, but delaying bus riders and creating dangerous street conditions cannot be written off by these large corporations as the cost of doing business,” said Vin Barone, a DOT spokesperson.

Mamdani has committed to speeding buses by expanding the reach of bus lanes citywide and embarking on a series of street redesigns. One street overhaul announced this week for Flatbush Avenue will eventually have buses running in the center lanes. Buses along Flatbush can crawl as slowly as 4 mph, according to DOT.

“New York City DOT is working to improve our street designs to better keep bus lanes clear for the more than 1 million daily riders and recently launched a new Curb Management Unit to improve how the city handles the increasing number of deliveries on our streets,” Barone added. 

Still, the number of violations points to some of the obstacles in the way of Mamdani’s fast buses commitment, which the mayor has paired with his hope of eventually securing fare-free service. According to MTA data, buses last month moved at a citywide average of 8.3 mph, including a low of 6.2 mph in Manhattan.

The Bronx was a tick higher at 6.6 mph. In contrast, Staten Island buses traveled at an average speed of 15.2 mph.

Donald Yates, a vice president with Transport Workers Union Local 100, cited taxis, for-hire vehicles, ice cream vendors and delivery trucks as roadblocks in bus lanes. He’s skeptical about vehicles clearing out of the way.

“There’s not enough real estate to make things change,” said Yates, who represents Manhattan and Bronx bus operators. “The city’s got to run, and I guess these deliveries help with commerce. I just don’t see it changing.”

The TWU Local 100 official acknowledged that vehicles for Con Edison sometimes land in bus lanes while crews are on emergency duties and also expressed sympathy for drivers of delivery trucks.

“They have to do their deliveries,” Yates said. “Anybody with common sense has some sympathy for that.”

As Olga Villate waited for a southbound M15 bus at Second Avenue and East 50th Street, she said she is sometimes frustrated by what she encounters in the bus lane.

“You say, ‘Why? Why is someone in the bus lane?’” said Villate, 45. “Drivers see the signs for not going into the bus lane, and they just keep going in there.”

“I don’t understand why they don’t respect it,” she added. “No respect for the bus lane.”

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New York’s first-ever deputy mayor for economic justice says her job is to grow the economy by delivering on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s agenda for helping those who need it the most.

In: Affordable housing, free childcare and city-owned grocery stores. 

Out: Billions in tax breaks and incentives to big developers and employers, unless they improve the lives of working class New Yorkers.

In a sharp U-turn from policies pursued by mayors for decades, Deputy Mayor Julie Su says priorities that include building 200,000 new apartments and establishing universal child care will create a healthy economy. 

Gone, she says, are the days when city taxpayers helped fund new office developments that sometimes showed little public benefit. 

“Building housing at the scale that we’re talking about is a job creator and an economic engine,” Su said in a wide ranging interview with THE CITY. “Childcare is both an economic generator because when you grow that industry, there’s jobs in that industry and you allow other people to join the workplace.”

The turnabout is clear from the Mamdani administration’s new approach to tax breaks, favoring them only after tougher scrutiny and with provisions for union labor. Su said taxpayer-funded incentives would require “benefits for working class communities,” though she wasn’t more specific on what that might mean.

Mamdani’s agenda is hemmed in by a $5.4 billion budget deficit and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to go along with his demands for higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and inflation in New York City outpaces the national rate.

Speaking at City Hall, Su — a former top official in President Joe Biden’s Labor Department — emphasized the need for equity in economic growth. 

“This is a little bit of a crude metaphor, but I think about it as we want everybody to have a real slice of the pie,” she said. “We also want to grow the overall pie, and we want to make sure that the pie is filled with good ingredients that make people healthy and happy.”

That includes possibly implementing the mayor’s campaign pledge to nearly double the minimum wage from its current $17 an hour to $30 over the next several years.

Not on the agenda so far are the kind of direct city investments in industries and neighborhoods that have spurred growth in the past.

In the early 2000s, the Bloomberg administration financed the expansion of the 7 subway to the far west side, provided tax breaks to jumpstart the office and luxury residential district at Hudson Yards, and overhauled the management of the Brooklyn Navy Yard to create a home for light manufacturing. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio offered $5 billion in tax breaks in a failed effort to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to the city and pursued growth outside Manhattan with investments and tax incentives. 

Eric Adams pursued projects like turning the Brooklyn Army Terminal into a center for climate innovation companies, provided millions of dollars to help expand the city’s film studios and relentlessly worked to lure tech companies and universities.

“We believe that all tools should be on the table to attract and retain high-quality, family-supporting jobs in New York City,” Su said. “In the past, tax incentives have enriched those at the top of the economic ladder while depriving the city of critical revenue and often failing to yield tangible benefits for working New Yorkers.”

Of a planned Hudson Yards expansion that relied on another $2 billion in public money, a Mamdani spokesperson said: “We are not actively engaged in negotiations to move this project forward at this time.”

A key indication of Mamdani’s economic policy may be who is named to run the Economic Development Corp., a semi-independent agency that has historically been the spearhead for development efforts. 

Shortly after being appointed, Su wrote a memo that called for the agency to focus on “the quality (not just number) of jobs created for the people who call N.Y.C. home,” The New York Times reported, raising alarm among business leaders. Su declined to say where she stood on filling the job but added that EDC is “firing on all cylinders.”

Business leaders are closely watching who will be appointed.

“Folks are still waiting to see who the administration’s point person on business recruitment and job retention will be,” said James Whelan, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York who worked on economic development in the Bloomberg administration. “If you want a progressive city, you need a prosperous city. Someone needs to pay for the progressivity.”

Ruffled Hedge Fund Feathers

Su, who served as California’s labor secretary before joining the Biden administration, moved to address a growing storm over the mayor’s calling out of billionaire hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin by filming a social media post touting the pied-a-terre tax proposal in front of Griffin’s $238 million Manhattan penthouse.

Griffin’s fund, Citadel, moved hundreds of people to New York from Chicago and is in the process of building a new headquarters on Park Avenue — but a letter to employees last Thursday said it might not move ahead with the plan.

“We are about to commence the redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, creating 6,000 highly paid construction jobs and supporting the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in mid-town New York,” wrote chief operating officer Gerald Beeson. “The project — if we move forward — will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending.”

Gov. Hochul announced Tuesday she would meet with Griffin amid continuing media focus on the issue. Su tried to calm the waters in her interview with THE CITY.

“We value Wall Street. We value companies that have made New York City their home,” she said. “We value the job creators who are really fundamental to creating the kind of growth that is required for shared prosperity. And we absolutely welcome the opportunities to work with them to deliver on an economy that works for everybody.”

Su declined to say whether the Administration would support a bill in the City Council to raise the minimum wage, noting uncertainty over whether the city had the power to do that without approval from state legislators.

But she strongly supported the efforts to end what the administration sees as corporate gouging of consumers — especially online. Mamdani has required companies offering online subscriptions provide an easy unsubscribe option, and moved to force hotels to disclose fees more clearly.

Some of Mamdani’s appointees worked for Lina Khan, Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chair, who pursued aggressive regulation of tech companies. Khan has emerged as an important adviser to the mayor, and with the Trump Administration undoing much of their work in Washington, they are attempting to reestablish regulations on the city level.

“If you as a company operate in New York City and your practices, including subscription traps, impact New Yorkers, then we are charged with protecting New York workers and consumers,” Su said. “And we are going to exercise our full authority on that front.”

The mayor has taken two steps to aid small businesses in the city. In January he ordered all city agencies to review regulations affecting small firms that could be reduced or eliminated. He also appointed small business development executive Delia Awusi as his “Mom-and-Pop Czar” to help the smallest of those companies.

Mamdani is far from the first mayor to promise changes.

“I’ve been around for four mayors and all of them promised to reduce fines and fees and didn’t,” said a skeptical Laura Rothrock, president of the Long Island City Partnership.

Su says that the agencies have submitted their list of regulations that could be revised and it is under review. She said she understands the failures that have preceded her but added that this administration will be different — and not just by helping small businesses.

“I have been getting advice that we should tinker at the margins rather than set broad goals that people are going to point at, that you failed at,” she said. “That is not who we are. That is not who this mayor is. We have to prove that government can deliver.”

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Carl Wilson is on track to win the special election to the City Council district representing the West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and other parts of the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday, with a strong lead over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s choice for the seat.

After one round of ranked-choice voting tabulations, Wilson led his closest rival, Lindsey Boylan, who rose to prominence as the first person to publicly accuse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, her onetime boss, of sexual harassment, by a commanding 43% to 25%, with more than 93% of ballots counted. 

“I stand here tonight deeply honored to be your next Council member for District 3,” Wilson told jubilant supporters at his watch party at the bar Vers in Hell’s Kitchen.

Around 10 p.m., Boylan told supporters at the Chelsea Bell she had “called Carl to congratulate him on winning this race.” 

Council Speaker Julie Menin celebrated Wilson’s victory, which pitted Mamdani against the Manhattan Democratic establishment. “Tonight, we had a resounding victory by electing Carl Wilson as our next City Council Member,” Menin said in a social media post.

Election officials will keep counting ranked ballots until a candidate crosses 50% of votes.

Wilson will be sworn in to the City Council after the results are ratified, but will need to win the June 23 Democratic primary and the November general election in order to serve a full four-year term.

Wilson defeated Boylan despite her significant name recognition heading into the special election, which was declared when Councilmember Erik Bottcher vacated the seat in January upon his election to the state Senate. It was Boylan’s third run for office, after failed bids for Congress and Manhattan borough president in 2020 and 2021. Wilson had been Bottcher’s chief of staff.

The special election became a proxy war between the city’s democratic socialist faction, headed by Mayor Mamdani, and the Democratic establishment. 

Wilson was endorsed by all four of his immediate predecessors, including former Council speakers Christine Quinn and Corey Johnson, and several of the district’s political clubs.

Many of those same leaders despaired at the prospect of Boylan, a straight woman, representing a historically LGBTQ seat, one that is home to the Stonewall Inn, the cradle of the national gay rights movement. Like all four of his predecessors, Wilson is gay.

Wilson “built an unbelievable coalition,” Menin said. There was no immediate comment from the mayor.

A political action committee tied to Cuomo allies poured six-figure sums into ads attacking Boylan and supporting Wilson, her main opponent, New York Focus reported. (Cuomo has denied all accusations against him, by Boylan and other accusers.)

That group, Westside Progress, reported spending $144,500 starting last week on ads, texts and phone calls supporting Wilson.

“Don’t rank socialist Lindsey Boylan,” read one of the online ads, an apparent nod to her status as a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which did not endorse her.

Approximately 15,000 voters in the 3rd Council district cast their ballots, about half the amount that cast their ballots in the June 2025 mayoral primary. Still, turnout was high for a special election, where the number of ballots cast generally hovers below 10,000.

Under ranked choice voting, New Yorkers can select up to five candidates. If their top pick has the fewest first-choice votes, that candidate will be eliminated, and all of those votes are redistributed to second-choice picks. That process continues, until the winner has more than 50% of the remaining votes cast.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday shot down a request by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin to change a tax credit to help fill a $5.4 billion city budget deficit.

Mamdani and Menin had asked state lawmakers to authorize changes to the pass-through entity tax, or PTET, which allows some business people to keep state and local tax deductions that were limited by a 2017 federal tax law. The mayor and speaker said the changes would generate an estimated $1 billion in revenue for the city.

But Hochul said she sees the proposed PTET cut as a personal tax increase. 

“That’s why it’s not happening,” she said at an unrelated event outside Albany. “We’re not changing PTET.”

Menin and Mamdani, appearing in the City Hall rotunda at their the first joint press conference since they began their contentious budget negotiations, also announced an extension of the city budget, which is due May 1, until May 12. The state budget, which was due April 1, is nearly a month late.

“A crisis of this scale cannot be solved without state action,” the mayor said. “Speaker Menin and I have already identified meaningful savings and we will continue that work carefully, deliberately and without cutting the services that New Yorkers rely on. But we cannot do it alone.”

Hochul took issue with that framing.

“What you’re doing is independent of our budget process,” she said. “We don’t have to be done in order for you to do yours. We’re on different timetables.” Cities and towns typically set their budgets after the state budget is completed, so they know how much aid they’ll be getting from Albany. 

“I think it’s crystal clear that we already have helped them,” Hochul said, pointing to $4 billion in assistance the state agreed to provide the city in this budget cycle, as well as the agreement for a new tax on luxury second homes in New York City.

Hochul, who is running for reelection this year, said Mamdani and Menin need “to do what every other city has had to do,” by looking at expenses and identifying the line items growing exponentially. 

To save money, Mamdani has floated holding off on mandates to shrink class sizes and is fighting a lawsuit that would require the city to expand its rental voucher system.

He and Menin also asked the legislature to allow the city to reduce planned payments to the city’s five pension funds that are being made to make up for years of underfunding.

“There is no amount of savings that will absolve Albany from the partnership that’s required to get all of us to a balanced budget by the end of this process,” Mamdani said.

Trump Tax Law Work-Around

The PTET was instituted after the 2017 Trump tax cuts that sharply limited the state and local tax deduction. States like New York allowed people who owned closely held businesses or partnerships to pay state and local income taxes directly from their businesses, preserving the full federal tax deduction.

The state and local income tax payments were the same as if they paid the tax on their personal returns, but their federal taxes would be lower. The Mamdani-Menin plan would amount to a state and local tax increase for those people. The leaders said the proposed PTET change, from a full credit to 75%, would be temporary, though they did not name a timeline.

Mamdani described the PTET as “essentially a loophole that allows high-income earners to reduce their federal tax burden.”

In addition to the PTET changes, Menin and Mamdani also called on Albany to restore state Aid and Incentives to Municipalities funding, which the state stopped during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. They said it would amount to about $400 million per year.

Hochul, however, threw cold water on that ask, too, saying the state provides AIM funding for municipalities with property tax caps — and New York City does not have such a cap.

Mayor and Speaker Aligned

Menin and Mamdani’s joint request marks a turning point for the duo, who had been in opposition as city budget negotiations took shape.

The Council slammed the mayor’s last-resort pitch in February to increase property taxes, which would require approval from the 51-member body.  

Mamdani later criticized the Council’s response to his preliminary budget, saying their savings plan – which filled a more than $5 billion deficit without taking from the city’s reserves, finding savings elsewhere – was “unrealistic.”

Still, on Tuesday, the two leaders struck the same note, emphasizing that New York City contributes over 55% of the state’s revenues but gets back 42% in return.

“Despite being the economic engine of the state, the city sends billions of dollars to Albany each year and sends more than it receives in return,” Menin said. “We must finally address this imbalance.”

Greg David and Katie Honan contributed reporting.

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