Zohran Mamdani, the Queens assemblyman who is running quite an effective Democratic primary campaign for mayor, has some very expensive plans should he take over City Hall next year, including more than tripling the city’s current $30 billion commitment for housing to $100 billion over 10 years. We are troubled by the cost implications of his expansive platform and he needs to brush up on his basic municipal finance.
During a discussion yesterday with the Editorial Board, we asked him: “Can you lay out as specifically as possible the current debt constraints on New York City? What they are as of today? What you would want them to go to in order to finance your housing plan mechanically, how that happens, and if you can’t get it to happen that way, what happens to your plan?”
The whip smart Mamdani (a Bronx Science grad) clearly didn’t know either the formula to determine the city’s indebtedness level, as mandated by the state Constitution, or the actual numbers. A good politician, he spoke of “the arbitrary bond caps that we have” and the legacy of the fiscal crisis from a half century ago.
But he wouldn’t be specific when pressed, not even providing a ballpark figure in the tens of billions.
The rules on New York’s indebtedness are set by the state and the city’s statutory debt limit is capped by the state Constitution. Probably informed by his campaign aides who looked it up and right before the end of our conversation, Mamdani offered the correct response of 10% of the five-year average of the full valuation of city real estate, (the Constitution specifies 2½%, so just multiply by five).
In terms of dollars, which he never said, the last report from the city comptroller says that as of the start of Fiscal Year 2025 last summer, the amount of outstanding city debt accounted for was $95.8 billion against the constitutional limit of $136.8 billion, leaving $41.0 billion available to borrow on.
These are really big figures, built up over many years and Mamdani, in seeking to make the city more affordable as his campaign theme, wants to make them even bigger.
The primary is four weeks from today, and one thing we know for certain is that Mamdani isn’t going to forget the debt formula and dollar numbers.
