Like a proud dad, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders took to social media recently to cheer Zohran Mamdani’s budget wizardry in New York City. He gushed on X, “Congratulations to Mayor Mamdani. He inherited a huge budget deficit, brought it down to zero, and still invested in childcare, housing and city infrastructure.”

The young mayor, not shy about touting his own supposed success, was even more effusive. The social media star posted: “When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit. Today, I’m proud to say we brought it down to zero. We didn’t close the gap on the backs of working people.”

But Sanders knows better, and so does Mamdani. They both know that the flimsy budget proposal is a mash-up of false savings, payment postponements, poorly designed taxes and fees that will hurt working-class New Yorkers, plus a massive $4 billion bailout from Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).

Oh, and by the way, the law demands that the city’s budget must balance; you don’t get applauded for following the law, especially when you do it with the actuarial equivalent of chewing gum and chicken wire.

None of Mamdani’s supposed feat is real; none of it is sustainable, and it definitely does not deserve the hosannas streaming in from leftists like Sanders, who are justificably panicked that the young socialist mayor is failing already.

After his first 100 days in office, Mamdani’s approval rating plummeted to below that awarded his predecessor, Eric Adams. Maybe it was his ideological decision to allow 18 people to freeze to death on the sidewalks. Perhaps it was his cozying up to known antisemites like Hasan Piker. In any case, after just a few months on the job, only 30 percent of Big Apple residents report being “happy” with Mamdani’s performance. Democratic socialists are on alert; Mamdani is their poster child, and they are praying his mayoralty does not become the train wreck many expect.

Mamdani’s fans also hope that no one digs too deeply into the mayor’s budget. If they do, they will reach the same conclusion as City Comptroller Mark Levine, who wrote that Mamdani’s budget ignores “that city government continues to spend more than we take in, even in a year of record revenues.” As one Democrat operative told the New York Post, “Mamdani’s budget is as real as Kim Kardashian’s lips.”

In a statement, Levine expresses relief that the mayor did not follow through on his threatened 9.5 percent property tax hike — a proposal that had united the city in anger. But he confirms that the budget works mainly because Hochul, terrified of losing left-wing support in November’s election, caved. To save her own skin, she delivered what was needed to fill the budget hole. That’s New York politics — kick the can down the road and hope no one holds you accountable when the inevitable bills roll in.

But politics and wishful thinking cannot cure what is wrong with the Empire State, or the Big Apple. As Levine writes, Mamdani’s proposals “delay addressing the deeper structural imbalances in the City’s budget.” He points specifically to the “out-year gaps” in the budget — a $7.1 billion hole in fiscal 2028, which is projected to increase to $9.8 billion by fiscal 2030.

In other words, the budget shortfalls will only get worse and require bigger bailouts.

In fact, it is highly likely that Mamdani’s projections even for next year are too optimistic. Consider: Typical of the so-called savings in his budget is $94 million, to be gained by “terminating contracts where city workers can do it better.” Pause to remember your most recent visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles, or your attempt to report a non-emergency problem by calling 311. City agencies are not exactly models of efficiency.

Given Democrats’ cozy relationship with public employee unions, one can assume that if work has been farmed out to the private sector, it is because there was no good alternative.

The same could be said of the $368 million Mamdani expects to derive from improving the “efficiency of public services,” or the nearly $1 billion he expects to save by “accurately estimating expenses.”

Down the road, the spending picture is even darker. City outlays are projected to grow by a staggering 28 percent between fiscal 2025 and 2030. Major union contracts, including for the police and firemen, are in limbo, having expired in July 2025. When those contracts are negotiated, any raises above the 1.25 percent annually budgeted will require fresh infusions of cash the city does not have. And the city is practically guaranteed to give raises above that level.

Of course, not all the closing of the budget gap came from fanciful reductions of expenses. Revenues were also expected to rise because of Mamdani’s pied-a-terre tax, which will almost surely fall short of the budget’s projected $500 million. Levine was not optimistic about that that projection, contending instead that “behavioral changes” might lead to the tax raising only as much as $380 million.

“Behavioral changes” — you know, like when wealthy people, sick of being targeted by Mamdani and his fellow travelers, sell their apartments. That has been the history of such levies in the United Kingdom and Canada; New York likely will experience the same.

The mayor has also pumped up fees on things like ambulance services and getting help from EMS and fining those who drive in the bus lanes. Those costs will land on all New Yorkers, not just the wealthy. Ironically, Mamdani is jacking up the fee for obtaining a handgun, expecting demand to be high. Now why would that be, I wonder?

In a way, Mamdani deserves our sympathy. He is stuck with the results of decades of excessive spending, outrageous giveaways to public employee unions and crushing benefits handed out to New Yorkers that the city cannot afford. But all you really need to know about New York City’s $125 billion budget is that it is bigger than the $115 billion expected to be spent this year by the entire state of Florida. New York City has 8.5 million people; the state of Florida has 23.6 million.

New York has a problem, and this latest fiscal foolishness is not making it better.

Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company.

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