Mamdani weighs in on budget gap, ICE enforcement and more

Hoping the chaos, tension and violence that’s unfolded in other American cities amid stepped-up immigration enforcement doesn’t play out in New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani told NY1 Wednesday in speaking with President Donald Trump, he’s called ICE raids cruel and inhumane.

“We had an honest and firm disagreement on it. I made it clear that the city cares deeply for public safety and that we have the NYPD for that and don’t need ICE here creating a climate of terror and fear among New Yorkers no matter their immigration status,” he said.

In his first month on the job, the mayor’s coordinated snow coverage raced to keep New Yorkers safe in sub-freezing temperatures. And now, he’s saying he knows the truth about the city’s finances, staggering a two-year $12 billion deficit.

“We didn’t create this crisis, but we will resolve it. [The] first step is being honest with New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani said he’ll go to Albany himself and ask state lawmakers to raise taxes on New Yorkers making over a million dollars a year — an idea the governor has already rejected for the next state budget. 

The mayor said it’s time for the economic balance between the state and the city to change.

“Frankly, the city’s economic health has been a generator for the state and the country. However, from what we saw, it looked more like a politics motivated by a cruelty toward the city as opposed to anything else,” Mamdani said.

After running for mayor on an ambitious and expensive platform, Mamdani said the budget crisis may delay the rollout of some of his signature proposals.

Pressed about whether he might raise property taxes to help close the budget gap, he maintained, “Putting the bill of this fiscal crisis on the backs of middle class New Yorkers, when they had nothing to do with, that is not where we want to go.

NY1 political anchor Errol Louis also asked Mamdani about his transition to Gracie Mansion and if anything was left behind, such as a note from former Mayor Eric Adams.

“I wish he would have told me where he left it. No note, no ghosts, no crypto,” he said.