If you want to see a governor sigh, mention Zohran Mamdani’s name in Albany this month. Lawmakers from both parties have been pressing Kathy Hochul to do something about the mayor of New York City. What exactly they want her to do is a little fuzzy. What’s clear is that they’re frustrated, and they want her to be frustrated too.
Alexa Bruno talked with people on all sides of the fight.
The loudest complaint is that Mamdani’s team has been describing the city’s budget hole as much bigger than it really is. Several legislators say the numbers in the mayor’s speeches don’t match the numbers in their own briefings.
“I’m not a math teacher,” one upstate assemblywoman said. “But if my kid came home with that answer, I’d ask to see the work.” The mayor’s office says the critics are using rosy assumptions and that being honest about a problem isn’t the same as exaggerating it.
The second fight is about business. New York’s tax bills are already among the highest anywhere. Lawmakers from the suburbs say they hear every week from owners who are tired of paying more and getting less.
“They don’t want a fight,” said a lobbyist who represents small retailers. “They want a lease they can afford and a subway that shows up. That’s the whole wish list.” Mamdani has argued the city’s biggest companies can afford to chip in more. His critics say those companies can also afford moving trucks.
Some of Mamdani’s fiercest opponents have floated the idea of a recall, mostly in posts with a lot of capital letters. In Albany, though, nobody seems to have a real plan, and several lawmakers privately rolled their eyes at the idea.
“It’s a great hashtag,” one senator said. “It’s a terrible weekend project.” Instead, the pressure has landed on Hochul. Lawmakers want her to lean on the mayor, slow down his tax plans and bring the budget fight back down to earth.
Hochul is in a tough spot. If she leans too hard on the mayor, his supporters will say she’s bullying the city. If she doesn’t lean at all, the Legislature will say she’s asleep at the wheel.
Her staff has settled on the classic political move: lots of private meetings and very carefully worded statements. “The governor believes in working together,” an aide told Bruno, which is the kind of sentence that means absolutely nothing and everything at the same time.
Mamdani’s supporters say the pressure campaign is really about protecting the people who already have the most. They argue the mayor was elected to shake things up, and that Albany is upset precisely because he’s doing it.
“He told voters exactly what he’d do,” said a volunteer from his campaign. “Now he’s doing it, and suddenly everybody’s shocked.”
His critics say they aren’t shocked, just worried. They point to empty storefronts and companies announcing moves to Texas and Florida. “We’re not against him,” one assemblyman insisted. “We’re against losing the tax base that pays for the things he wants.” Both sides say they want the same thing: a city that works. They just disagree on nearly every step of how to get there.
Out on the street, people seemed less interested in who was winning and more interested in whether anybody would fix the bus that never comes.
“Hochul, Mamdani, whoever,” said a retired nurse in Queens. “I don’t care whose name is on the press release. Just make the rent stop going up.” That might be the one thing every side agrees on. The question is whether they’ll agree on it before the next budget deadline, or the one after that.
