Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pressing the City Council to drain the Big Apple’s rainy day fund — setting up a showdown with Speaker Julie Menin, The Post has learned.
The Mamdani administration formally requested that the council amend the city’s current spending plan to allow siphoning $980 million from a savings fund created under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021.
The fund currently has $2 billion, and city officials have never tapped into it — even during the COVID pandemic and the migrant crisis.
Mamdani — who has proposed a record $127 billion spending plan — has claimed he needs the cash to help cover what he says is a $5.4 billion budget deficit.
The council now has 30 days to vote on the measure — which is unlikely to move forward as top council members, including the speaker, have already spoken out against pulling from the city’s savings.
Menin argued that the city could instead make about $1.7 billion in spending cuts for the 2027 fiscal year.
“The responsible path forward is not to deplete our financial safety net, but to pursue real efficiencies and sustainable solutions,” Menin said last week.
“The council will continue pushing for the long-term savings and fiscal discipline needed to protect New York City’s financial stability.”
But Mamdani’s team has pushed back, countering that Menin’s savings math doesn’t add up.
The budget standoff comes as Mamdani plans to poach Menin’s budget chief, Richard Lee, to become his Finance Department commissioner, sources confirmed.
The top concern for the lawmakers has been a downgrade of the Big Apple’s bond rating, which would increase borrowing costs and significantly hurt city finances.
Last week, two top bond rating companies warned of a downgrade if city savings were depleted.
“The main thing we were concerned about is how it would affect the bond rating. Now we are seeing that in real time,” said Council Finance Chair Linda Lee.
“A lot of folks who are criticizing us are saying we want to cut services, and that is something I would never advocate for,” she added. “There is money to be found and savings to be found. We shouldn’t go into the rainy day fund.”
