‘It’s getting worse’: New York City faces budget crisis as Mamdani spends more

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Army, a few minutes ago, I played a clip of your mayor talking about a budget crisis. A budget crisis, he said, of historic magnitude.

[00:00:10]How bad is the financial position of New York City? And where's Zoron Mandani going to find the money for all the free stuff he has promised?

[00:00:19]>> It's really, really bad. Okay, it's a 12.5 billion budget deficit. Okay, for a little context, uh the Ukraine military budget is 6 billion and they're holding off the entire nation of Russia. Okay, the entire uh budget of the country of Chad is 12 billion. Okay, that actually maybe I'm actually shocked that Chad spends 12 billion on their budget. That is actually pretty surprising. Maybe that's not a perfect example. Um no. And it is it getting better? No, it's getting worse. Look, this is all this this is all because of uh left-wing spend and left-wing policies of the prior administration and Mandani. Yeah, of course, he just started, right? The 12.5 billion is not his problem, but what is he doing to solve this? He's spending more money. Okay, we have a rainy day fund which totals about $2 billion. It's there to for a rainy day. If we have a problem, you can tap into that. Half it is gone spent by him just in the last couple of months. Okay. And what he's spending, this is the the guy spending, right, millions of dollars on stateowned groceries, which by the way is 4x what a private grocery store chain will will cost to open up, right? This is a guy that's spending $12.5 million on a daycare center for 40 kids with a $2.5 million operating cost for 40 kids.

[00:01:46]That's more than the cost of Harvard.

[00:01:48]Okay. and um his solution to all and by the way not not to keep going because there's so much talk about here uh three of the four major bond rating agencies are downgrading uh the city of New York to negative which is going to increase our bing our borrowing costs creating this debt cycle we will not be able to get out of and what's the solution other than spending more money oh why don't we drive out the people who are actually paying the tax in the city let's do that or let's allow more fair evaders Do you know that last year 50% of people got on New York City buses didn't pay a dime?

[00:02:24]They just walk right on because the city does not want to arrest black people because they did a study that the majority of people who who evade fairs are people of color. They don't want to arrest them. So, let's allow everybody to simply get on the New York City transit system, which is one of the supposed to be one of the major revenue drivers for the city. That's where we're at. Sorry, I'm I'm I'm pissed. I'm upset. Yes, I live in the city and they're destroying it.

[00:02:49]>> Army, let's go back across the country to LA. There's a race to be the next mayor and one of the front runners is a former reality TV star. He's got some Trump-like qualities. He's uh saying that he wants to return LA to its golden age.

[00:03:06]>> This is where Mayor Bass lives. You notice something? Or here where Nikkia Ramen's $3 million mansion sits. They don't have to live in the mess they've created. where you live.

[00:03:18]This is where I live. They let my home burn down. I know what the consequences of failed leadership are. That's why I'm running for mayor.

[00:03:27]>> What do you think his chances are? He's getting some high-profile support. His messaging is brilliant. His ads are very good. He's he knows what he's doing there given that he has zero experience in politics. Could he pull it off?

[00:03:45]he could pull it off. And by the way, his ads have been phen that was a great ad. Maybe my favorite ad was he went to the Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles.

[00:03:53]Um, which you couldn't see him because it's it's pitch dark because there's no lights there because Karen Bass, by the way, uh, low-key one of the worst, if not the worst mayor, uh, in the entire country. It's a running gun battle between her, mom, Donnie, and and and the mayor of Chicago. Um, she is really one of the worst. She's been there for a long time. has a a tremendous amount of institutional support in the city and electoral support. But yeah, his ad on the Sixth Street Bridge, he went there because Karen Bass said she said, "Hey, if anybody wants to go there, uh you could steal all the copper wiring from the lights." And exactly what they did.

[00:04:29]They went and stole all the copper wiring from the lights because they want to put up, you know, um solar panel lighting cuz Yeah. They're not going to steal that, right? Um no, it's it's it's horrific. He's got a chance because the city re people are finally Look, I know you laugh at me. I've said it over and over again. The state of California, it's just not lost. I know it's been lost for decades, but it was in fact a purple to red state when I was a kid growing up. And I want to believe, Rita, I want to believe it can happen again.

[00:04:58]>> Well, that was before literally millions of immigrants went there and the demographics changed quite dramatically.

[00:05:04]So you live in hope that California could become purple or red again. I see it as deeply deeply blue. But it will be fascinating to see the outcome of the uh the race of who's the next mayor of LA.

[00:05:17]Army Horowitz, always a pleasure.

[00:05:20]Measure in month.