Incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan stated Monday the Mamdani administration intends to push forward with its sweeping affordability agenda with out breaking the town’s financial institution.
The affordability agenda, together with hire freezes and expanded baby care, will transfer ahead whilst Fuleihan acknowledged that tight budgets, union negotiations, and sluggish metropolis hiring may complicate delivering fast reduction for New Yorkers.
Talking at a Residents Funds Fee breakfast in Midtown and later speaking with reporters on Dec. 15, Fuleihan careworn that whereas voters endorsed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s guarantees on housing and baby care, the administration should nonetheless stability the price range, negotiate with labor unions, and work with Albany earlier than funding main expansions.
“There’s a very aggressive agenda on affordability,” Fuleihan stated, “but there’s also day-to-day operational issues. And he is committed to excellence… and you will see day-to-day changes in those operational issues that have consequences for every single New Yorker.”
Fuleihan, a veteran of metropolis and state authorities with a profession relationship again to the Nineteen Seventies, struck a realistic tone on the CBC occasion. He repeatedly emphasised fiscal self-discipline whilst he defended the ambition of Mamdani’s agenda.
The incoming first deputy mayor beforehand served in the identical function for then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio between 2018 and 2021 — performing as a key adviser on managing the NYPD, the Division of Schooling and the Division of Investigation.
Throughout his tenure underneath de Blasio, Fuleihan personally oversaw a number of highly effective companies, together with the Workplace of Administration and Funds, the Workplace of Labor Relations, and the Workplace of Local weather Coverage and Packages, an expertise he stated informs his method to the town’s present fiscal and operational challenges.
The incoming first deputy mayor stated the administration will proceed the town’s long-standing follow of manufacturing a balanced price range underneath typically accepted accounting ideas when the preliminary price range is launched Feb. 1.
“We are going to continue the tradition — there’s going to be a balanced budget under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,” he stated. “That has been the standard since 1982. That’s the foundation.”
Fuleihan says Mamdani admin will work inside state tax insurance policies
Fuleihan stated discussions with the state authorities on company and private revenue tax insurance policies are ongoing and can affect how the town’s preliminary price range takes form within the coming month, saying Hochul’s price range plans will “give us a sense of our relationship with the state,” including that no remaining choices have been made.
CBC President Andrew Rein and First Deputy Mayor-designate Dean Fuleihan.Picture by CBC
Throughout his marketing campaign, Mamdani had proposed elevating taxes on each firms and millionaires to pay for his signature coverage gadgets — one thing the Gov. Hochul had lengthy stated she no intention of approving.
A lot of his bold agenda hinges on a state enhance within the company tax price to match New Jersey’s 11.5%, which he has claimed will generate $5 billion for the town.
Fuleihan stated the administration will proceed planning its price range with state income assumptions in thoughts: “I think it’s also fair to say if things are in the governor’s budget, historically, those have been reflected got the city budget.”
Whereas Hochul had lengthy resisted elevating the company tax price to fund metropolis initiatives, she has just lately signaled a willingness to revisit the problem. She has remained agency, nevertheless, that particular person revenue taxes is not going to be elevated.
Fuleihan additionally weighed in on property tax reform, highlighting the administration’s purpose of larger equity throughout the town’s property tax system. “We know there’s an unfair system, and as a class, co-ops are undervalued,” he stated, whereas acknowledging that some co-ops face the identical fairness challenges as single-family properties.
He emphasised that the administration might want to stability reform with the realities confronted by struggling owners. “We need to come up with a way to do that so that burden does not become front and center,” Fuleihan stated, including that any transition to a extra equitable system can be a high precedence for the brand new administration.
“I can’t imagine a stronger statement to say that our administration takes this seriously than the mayor-elect raising this in the White House, that New York City property tax, when they were discussing housing, is one of the things that has to be addressed,” he stated.
Extra administration appointments to come back
Requested in regards to the tempo of constructing out the brand new administration, Fuleihan stated personnel bulletins are imminent.
“You’re going to get appointments” this week, he informed CBC President Andrew Rein, describing the trouble to assemble a senior workforce able to executing the administration’s priorities.
Mamdani has not revealed any main appointments to his incoming administration since saying that the sitting police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, would stay in her function practically a month in the past.
Within the week after the election, Mamdani introduced Fuleihan’s appointment, in addition to that of his longtime aide Elle Bisgaard-Church as his incoming chief of employees.
On housing, Fuleihan reaffirmed Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents for the town’s stabilized tenants, calling it a core marketing campaign dedication. He additionally highlighted the current passage of citywide housing poll measures that Mamdani endorsed late within the marketing campaign, saying they’ll “allow housing development to happen at a faster pace” by reducing by bureaucratic boundaries.
Pressed on considerations {that a} hire freeze may worsen the funds of distressed rent-stabilized buildings, significantly older properties, Fuleihan acknowledged the danger however provided few specifics. “There are landlords that are struggling,” he stated. “We recognize it.” He stated the administration intends to deal with these challenges alongside tenant protections.
Funds pressures loomed over a lot of the dialogue Monday morning. Requested whether or not the administration can be prepared to chop or shrink applications that aren’t delivering outcomes with the intention to fund new priorities, Fuleihan stated sure, pointing to Mamdani’s earlier pledges to enact procurement reform and extra environment friendly service supply.
Previous to the election, Mamdani proposed a plan aimed toward curbing “redundant and duplicative spending” throughout the Division of Schooling’s $40 billion price range, roughly $10 billion of which is spent yearly on exterior contracts. The plan, which Mamdani referred to as “curing procurement,” includes auditing the division’s high distributors and largest contracts, consolidating inside procurement places of work, establishing contracting hubs in every borough, and introducing a vendor ranking dashboard to spice up accountability.
Mamdani projected these steps may lower redundant spending by at the least 10% and cut back retroactive or emergency procurement by 30%, probably saving $1 billion to $3 billion yearly.
Fuleihan stated Monday that the incoming administration believes there are alternatives to search out financial savings with out undermining core providers, together with bettering the town’s procurement and reimbursement programs and addressing continual hiring delays which have left companies understaffed. Greater than 70,000 individuals have expressed curiosity in metropolis jobs, he stated, however inflexible processes and unfilled positions have damage service supply throughout companies.
Picture by CBC
Labor negotiations are additionally one other looming problem. Fuleihan informed reporters that new union contracts and potential productiveness measures is not going to be mirrored within the upcoming preliminary price range, however will as a substitute be a part of longer-term negotiations.
“We want to work with our labor partners to make sure that government is being delivered efficiently,” he stated. “We also have to deliver an appropriate wage because they also struggle through the affordability crisis. And some of those wages are significantly low.”
Discovering labor efficiencies is “part of the question,” Fuleihan stated. “We do believe the workforce actually is trying to deliver the very best service, and it’s, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we listen to their needs, as well as the business community.”
Transportation coverage additionally surfaced in the course of the breakfast occasion. Requested by former Metropolis Council Speaker Corey Johnson about Mamdani’s plans for the Division of Transportation, Fuleihan stated, “We need a department that’s actually committed to” the town’s Streets Plan, the legislation Johnson launched in 2019 requiring avenue redesigns to prioritize security, buses, and pedestrians.
