They can’t vouch on a budget deal.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s bid to hash out an agreement with the City Council on a $124.7 billion proposed city budget has reached an impasse over a controversial housing voucher program, The Post has learned.
The city has until midnight Tuesday to pass a budget, although failing to do so carries no consequences other than bruised political egos for not green-lighting a spending plan on time during Mamdani’s first year in office.
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“They put political people in charge and they just don’t know the budget,” one insider gripes.
The main sticking point is the expansion of the cityFHEPS housing voucher, insiders said.
Mamdani continued to balk at funding the voucher – a prospect that could cost the city billions of dollars for years to come.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and her allies – including some lefties otherwise aligned with Mamdani – are pushing a bill to expand the voucher program, albeit with guardrails for spending.
The pro-voucher crowd held a rally Sunday and fired up a supportive storm of X posts that rankled the social media-focused Mamdani, sources said.
“The CityFHEPS rental assistance program is a lifeline for 65,000 of the most vulnerable New Yorkers – but it could and should be serving thousands more,” Menin posted.
“Today we rallied at City Hall to demand that the Administration fund the program’s expansion in the city budget: New York families can’t wait.”
City Council members in 2023 voted to expand cityFHEPS, potentially roping in up to 50,000 new families at a cost of more than $10 billion during its first five years.
Former mayor Eric Adams desperately fought the expansion — which he contended would cost billions of dollars more than advertised — by first issuing a veto that was overridden, and then with a court battle.
The former mayor’s court fight drew jeers from then-state Assemblyman Mamdani, who deemed it a “ridiculous waste of time during a housing crisis.” He double-downed by promising during the mayoral campaign to drop the lawsuit and let the voucher program go forward.
But Mamdani, once in office, changed his tune significantly.
The freshly minted Hizzoner rankled many of his lefty allies by fighting the City Council-led housing voucher expansion in court — continuing the battle first waged by his predecessor Eric Adams.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.