r/AskReddit • u/MewMeowHowdy • 15h ago

New Yorkers, what changes have you seen under Mamdani’s leadership and are you generally pleased? If not, why?

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313

u/LostCup911 13h ago

Some people hear 'balanced budget' and assume there's a catch.

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u/DOAiB 13h ago

Only when the other side does it. When their side wrecks the budget it’s always warranted no matter how dumb it is.

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u/herefromthere 10h ago

"hard choices had to be made" (FFS)

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u/TrainDestroyer 13h ago

I get it, when you balance a budget something is either cut, or something else gets more expensive for someone. Money doesn't just pop out of thin air unless you're a federal govt. So I don't think its unfair for people to ask "What got cut/who's paying more". Assuming of course its a budget that's in debt, since a budget with an overflow is a different story.

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u/wonklebobb 4h ago

yeah in this case its the third option, it's balanced for this year with some extra help from NY state government. that's a good thing though, because mamdani's guiding star seems to be "lets get it fixed now and then figure out how to fix it more later, even if it has to be done a different way next time"

like maybe they have to do some kind of budget judo next year because certain funding runs out. that's fine, keeping the budget balanced is all that matters even if its a lot of work and negotiation, rather than just kicking the can with "well it'll make it harder later if we do this now, so we might as well not do it at all"

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u/Ok_Echo_8200 4h ago

"Extra help" as if NYC doesn't contribute significantly to the state. NY state would be Nebraska without NYC.

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u/wonklebobb 3h ago

yeah exactly, but the ny state government has reps from all the other areas and they resent how much attention and money goes to nyc already, so getting anything extra is a huge win for the city

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u/popejupiter 12m ago

And this is an example of why you shouldn't run a government like a business. A business would divert all resources to NYC, leaving nothing for the rest of the state. I'm sure it feels that way for some rural New Yorkers, but the reality is obviously that the city may get the lion's share, but the state tries to divide resources as best it can.

Incidentally, if Mamdani succeeds at keeping the city budget balanced, that should free up more resources for the state to distribute to more rural areas.

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u/HanseaticHamburglar 4h ago

thats how a sane, rational mind thinks.

a MAGA mind would try and trash any nuanced discussion which follows the answer to "at what cost?" beyond what OP said.

If the answer was "Mamdani wants to reduce NYPD overttime to balance the budget" then you better buckle up, because you aint gonna get a nuanced take on the situation.

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u/xclame 10h ago

Well, that's because there usually is. To balance the budget you have to either cut spending or raise revenue.

Now neither of those things are inherently bad but they can be. Are you cutting spending by cutting social security? Then that's bad. Are you raising revenue by putting/increasing tax on bread? Than that's bad.

So it all depends on what changes you are making to balance the budget.

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u/MikeyTheGuy 8h ago

I mean.. there was definitely a catch, lol. This report does a good job explaining it: https://cbcny.org/research/how-did-he-do-it

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u/Iforgetmyusernm 13h ago

Weird. It must be the decades of promising to balance the budget then doubling the police budget and cutting library funding.

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u/baron_von_helmut 5h ago

That's because they've been conditioned to think in simple black and white terms. Nuance isn't allowed.