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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warns that finances in the nation’s third most populous city have “reached a point of no return.”
The mayor said this week that the city will need to take steps to deal with looming budget shortfalls and that key systems that Chicago provides, including education, housing, health care and transportation, are “woefully underfunded.”
Eight-hundred miles to the east, there are concerns in the nation’s most populous city that if democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November as New York City’s next mayor, the city could be headed for a fiscal abyss similar to the crisis half a century ago, when it came close to bankruptcy.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE WARNS ‘HALLOWEEN COMES EARLY ‘ AS CITY FACES SHORTFALLS
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s mayoral nominee in New York City, speaks to reporters on Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the 2025 race for New York City’s Democratic Party mayor nomination and who is running for re-election as an independent, struck a deal with the city council on a roughly $116 billion budget for fiscal year 2026.
“There are no perfect budgets. But we have come a long way, and this one gets pretty close,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a press conference announcing the deal in late June.
CUOMO FLIPS SCIPT ON MAMDANI IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE
But the 33-year-old Mamdani, who is the polling frontrunner over Adams, former New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and two other contenders in November’s general election, is running on an expensive platform to tackle affordability and inequality in one of the nation’s most expensive cities.
Mamdani grabbed national attention in late June after topping Cuomo and nine other candidates in the Democratic Party primary, as he took a big step towards becoming the first Muslim and first millennial mayor.
Former New York Governor and independent candidate for NYC Mayor Andrew Cuomo attends the funeral of slain NYPD officer Didarul Islam at Parkchester Jame Masjid on July 31, 2025 in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Mamdani, a Ugandan-born state assemblyman from the New York City borough of Queens, is proposing to eliminate fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age 5, and setting up government-run grocery stores.
There are concerns that the significant spending increases to pay for Mamdani’s proposals, along with the possibility of revenue shortfalls, could put a strain on New York City’s budget.
And at the center of Mamdani’s proposals to pay for his pricey plans is a “millionaire’s tax,” which critics say will spur ultra-wealthy New York City residents to flee.
Mamdani’s agenda has given Republicans plenty of fodder to use to go on offense, as they spotlight his “socialist” policies and try to anchor him to Democrats facing challenging re-elections next year. President Donald Trump has gone further, accusing Mamdani of being a “communist.”
And Mamdani’s rivals in November’s mayoral election are also taking aim at him.
Adams has said Mamdani is making “false promises” that will hurt low-income New Yorkers. And the mayor argues that Mamdani’s proposal to set up government-run supermarkets will “devastate the local bodegas and local stores.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams officially launches his independent re-election bid on June 26, 2025, in New York City. (AP)
Cuomo on Friday took to social media to argue that “Chicago is proof that incompetent leadership can turn a deep-dish city into a half-baked mess.”
A day earlier, as he proposed his own plan to address affordability in New York City, Cuomo charged that Mandani is “proposing a theory of socialism that has never worked anywhere.”
“What is the best answer to affordability? It is business development. It is opportunity. It is jobs. It is economic growth. It is not anti-business socialism,” Cuomo said as he asked and answered his own question.
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Firing back, Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec claimed that “trusting Andrew Cuomo to address New York’s affordability crisis is the equivalent of tasking an arsonist with putting out a fire — he created this crisis.”
“Trusting Andrew Cuomo to address New York’s affordability crisis is the equivalent of tasking an arsonist with putting out a fire — he created this crisis,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
