Mamdani, NYC Council deadlocked on $125B budget as deadline looms — because of mayor’s broken housing promise

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council were deadlocked on striking a deal over the $124.7 billion city budget Monday — as Hizzoner drew fire from his lefty comrades for breaking a campaign promise to expand housing vouchers.

The mayor’s resistance to growing the cityFHEPS voucher program, as mandated by a 2023 city law, ticked off his progressive allies in the Council less than a week after he delivered their long-held dream of a rent freeze.

“The CityFHEPS rental assistance program is a lifeline for 65,000 of the most vulnerable New Yorkers — but it could and should be serving thousands more,” Council Speaker Julie Menin posted on X as she rallied with other members Friday to call on City Hall to fund the program’s expansion in the budget.

The Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus called on the mayor to “shake @SpeakerMenin’s hand on a budget deal that includes funding for CityFHEPS,” while thanking her for “holding the line in these negotiations.”

Councilwoman Julie Won, a Queens Democrat, added: “The Mayor’s choice to defund it is a deep betrayal to New Yorkers in the system looking for support to restore their lives. There’s still time to do what’s right: Expand CityFHEPs.”

The city has until midnight Tuesday to pass a budget, although failing to do so carries no consequences other than bruised political egos for not greenlighting a spending plan on time during Mamdani’s first year in office.

Several Council sources were annoyed that Mamdani jumped into a pool, while wearing a suit, during a photo op Saturday instead of finalizing the budget deal while lawmakers and their staff huddled at City Hall.

“When running for office, he said whatever the voters wanted to hear, just to get votes,” one Democratic Council Member, who requested anonymity, fumed to The Post on Monday.

“It’s clear he didnt fully analyze whether those promises were achievable. It’s a dishonest way of earning support, and it’s another reason why Mamdani can’t be trusted.”

Despite his vow on the campaign trail, Mamdani — who has made affordable housing a keystone of his administration — has balked at funding the expansion, which could cost the cash-strapped city $3 to $4 billion a year. 

The Council in 2023 voted to grow cityFHEPS, potentially roping in up to 50,000 new families into the program, which provides taxpayer-funded vouchers to homeless New Yorkers to get them out of shelters and into long-term housing.

The passage came with the understanding that expanding the voucher program would help empty out city-funded homeless shelters. But the city has so far failed to reduce its shelter population, leading to the prospect that the voucher expansion would actually just balloon costs.

Former Mayor Eric Adams desperately fought the expansion — which he contended would cost billions of dollars more than advertised — by first issuing a veto that was overridden, and then with a court battle.

The former mayor’s court fight drew jeers from then-state Assemblyman Mamdani, who deemed it a “ridiculous waste of time during a housing crisis.” He double-downed by promising during the mayoral campaign last year to drop the lawsuit and let the voucher program go forward.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Instead, the freshly minted Hizzoner is continuing the court battle first waged by his predecessor, rankling many of his lefty political allies, as well as progressive advocacy groups.

“From my perspective the mayor made a campaign promise … and still when he came into office, he did almost an immediate flip-flop and did not on day one drop the lawsuit and did not on day one expand the voucher program,” said Christine Quinn, the CEO of the Win homelessness prevention program and the Council’s former speaker.

“I have been very, very disappointed in the mayor for taking that posture,” she added.

As budget negotiations came down to the wire Saturday, City Hall officials offered to keep funding cityFHEPS at its current $1.7 billion level, sources said.

But Menin pushed to settle the legal battle over the expansion and package it with a bill aimed at reining in out-of-control spending, according to the sources.

The pro-voucher crowd held a rally Sunday and fired up a supportive storm of X posts that rankled the social media-focused Mamdani, sources said.

Menin and Mamdani had actually struck a tentative deal on Thursday, insiders revealed. The deal – which also got a preliminary sign off from outspoken leftist Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán and other allies – would’ve funded just shy of $200 million in pet projects for individual lawmakers, sources said. 

But the broad-strokes deal was scuttled after lawmakers discovered certain items were double-counted, according to insiders. Menin then shifted to using the cityFHEPS expansion to unify the Council, including its progressive faction, against Mamdani, sources said.

One source said progressive Council members don’t necessarily trust the moderate Menin’s motivations, but they’re currently aligned with her because it could force Mamdani’s hand.

Mamdani also irritated some Council members – and mucked up the budget process – by trying to cut side deals directly with lawmakers, sources said.

“In the 13 budgets in which I’ve been involved as a staffer or a Council Member, I’ve never before heard of an administration cutting side deals with Council Members, then trying to make the Council to pay for those deals,” David Carr (R-Staten Island), the City Council’s minority leader, posted on X. 

“Socialism really is taking other people’s money.”