Thursday, October 29, 2026
Mamdani Has $38.6 Billion for Schools and, Somehow, No Plan
New York City will spend $38.6 billion on its public schools this year to serve just under a million students — a figure Fox News reports, citing a New York Post analysis, works out to 50% more per student than Los Angeles or Chicago spend. Ten months into Mamdani’s term, former Board of Education general counsel David Bloomfield says there’s “no real overwhelming education agenda” to show for it. Mamdani, who backed the state’s class-size law as an assemblyman, is now asking for a two-year extension pushing full compliance to 2030 — the same delay state lawmakers have already agreed to. Class Size Matters’ Leonie Haimson put it more bluntly: once elected, Mamdani “decided he wanted an extension.”
The takeaway — A $38.6 billion budget, mayoral control, and a signature promise now pushed to 2030. When the money is there and the plan isn’t, that’s a management problem, not a funding one.
Mamdani’s Tax on the Rich Keeps Losing in Court to Its Own Paperwork
The mayor’s signature tax on second-home owners keeps running into the same problem: the city can’t say who owes it. A Staten Island judge sided with homeowners who argued the rollout was rushed, that the Department of Finance hadn’t adequately determined who owes the tax, and that the city improperly published a list of affected properties and owners — forcing the city to restart the process, which it says it will appeal. Two new lawsuits since have gone further, arguing the tax is unconstitutional outright, with Attorney General Letitia James’s office named as a defendant. Mamdani, who cited roughly $500 million in expected revenue, held his ground anyway: “We’re standing here talking about a legacy of disinvestment.” An earlier round of the fight was already heard by a Brooklyn appellate court in August, which temporarily let the rollout continue while the underlying case plays out.
The takeaway — Mamdani’s pitch is that the wealthy can pay for affordability. His own Finance Department can’t yet prove who the wealthy are, and a court has made the city start over. A tax you can’t administer is a press release.
Mamdani Tried to Replace His Own Racial-Equity Chair. The Council Said No.
Mayor Mamdani wanted to replace Linda Tigani, chair of the city’s Commission on Racial Equity, and it took a letter from the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus to stop him. Mamdani agreed this week with Council Speaker Julie Menin to extend Tigani’s term through July 2027, after the caucus argued that “continuity in CORE’s leadership is essential.” Bronx Councilmember Althea Stevens said mayoral staff were “very direct that she needed to go” — without ever explaining why. The commission, for what it’s worth, just won a lawsuit finding that Mamdani and former Mayor Adams broke the law by missing the deadline for the city’s racial equity plan, which finally came out in September, more than two years late.
The takeaway — The city broke the law on racial equity planning, a court said so, and the administration’s response was to go shopping for a new chair. Even this mayor’s own Council balked.