The council released its budget rebuttal. Mamdani slammed Menin personally.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies slammed the City Council’s budget plan Wednesday, zeroing in on one person. “Council Speaker Julie Menin just released her budget proposal,” he said in a video published online. “If her proposal was adopted, it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, and working New Yorkers would pay the price.”

In a statement, the leaders of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani’s political network, slammed Menin as a “millionaire” and called her plan “out of touch.” The left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute followed up with an accusation of “fuzzy math.”

It was a marked escalation in tension between the two city leaders that followed soon after the mayor poached the City Council’s top budget director. In her budget response, Menin apparently did something Mamdani cannot forgive: She is not joining his calls to raise taxes on the wealthy to address the city’s budget shortfall. Mamdani’s attacks on Menin over the budget stood in stark contrast from how he has navigated budget disagreements with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who he is careful not to anger.

Both Mamdani, the lefty mayor, and Menin, the Upper East Side moderate who he didn’t want to be speaker, have said that they don’t want to partake in the kinds of antics and games that have come to characterize the city’s “budget dance.”

But based on statements from each leader on Wednesday, they may be gearing up for more of a budget brawl. 

Menin did not respond directly to Mamdani’s accusations in a video where she explained the council’s proposal. But the City Council’s X account called the mayor’s claims “untrue.” “It may be April Fools’ Day, but the Council wasn't kidding when we said NO CUTS to any services or staff,” the account, typically managed by the speaker’s office, posted.

The council budget response to the mayor’s preliminary budget plan is an annual part of the city budget process, required by law. The council on Wednesday claimed the city can close its $5.4 billion budget gap over fiscal years 2026 (ending June 30) and 2027, without raising taxes on the wealthy, raising property taxes, digging into reserves or cutting services. It also said it was possible to add $1.1 billion in additional council spending priorities. The proposal, explained in some detail in a 56-page brief, presented solutions like reestimated debt service costs ($240 million) and auditing education department contracts ($175 million this year and next). 

“I think that the council is pushing in the right direction because we agree that the city should be closing the budget gap with savings and protecting reserves,” said Andrew Rein, president of the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission. “We need as many ideas as possible … so that the city can be shrinking spending without cutting critical services.”

One of the largest areas of savings is $860 million that the council says the city over-budgeted for salaries and wages in the current fiscal year. The mayor’s office has disputed that that funding is unspent, with one Office of Management and Budget official telling Politico a few weeks ago that some of that money is being used to pay for costs like part-time teaching and if removed would amount to cuts. 

Budget cuts, as former Mayor Eric Adams’ previous attempts at across-the-board savings demonstrated, can be political poison, and neither Mamdani nor Menin wants that association.

In a separate, harsh written statement shortly after Menin released her plan, Mamdani called the council’s response “unrealistic.” He singled her out, though she was joined by Finance Committee Chair Linda Lee and Finance Division Director Nathan Toth to present it Wednesday. “Speaker Julie Menin’s preliminary budget proposal would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, which would force the City to cut services. Double counting previously identified savings, overestimating revenues, and exaggerating debt service savings does nothing to close a deficit,” Mamdani’s statement read. It also criticized Menin for not joining his calls for Albany to increase taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. 

NYC DSA co-chairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo went a bit farther: “Menin’s plan is DOGE-lite for New York City. Why does she think she can fill a $5.4 billion gap through ‘savings’ alone?” Gordillo said. “Working-class people will pay–just so millionaires like her don’t have to contribute to our city.”

“I absolutely believe in progressive taxation,” Menin said Wednesday, when asked about whether Albany needs to raise taxes to deliver new revenue to New York City. But she suggested that the proposed tax hike would prompt wealthy taxpayers to move elsewhere. “I think we don’t want a situation where we’re pitting states against each other, which is basically what that would do.” Menin said repeatedly that Albany should look at “all options” on the table, however.

Council members rallied behind the body’s proposal, including multiple members of Menin’s leadership team and other members who contested Mamdani’s characterization that the proposal would amount to cuts. 

“This is deeply misleading and potentially harmful!” Council Member Kevin Riley wrote on X, responding to Mamdani’s video. “I thought these four years were going to be different.”

“The fact that he’s singling out the speaker on this is actually disrespectful to the council members who helped inform the budget response,” another council member told City & State. 

It wasn’t just Menin allies questioning Mamdani’s messaging on Wednesday. “I’m surprised the mayor came out as hard as he did,” one member of the council’s Progressive Caucus said. “It puts some of us in a difficult situation.”