Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to drop $70 million on his government-owned grocery store pet project — even as he cries poverty and threatens to raise taxes to fill the city’s coffers, The Post has learned.
Hizzoner is proposing the new funding for the city Economic Development Corporation to scout potential locations for and build the five stores he’s pledged to open in each borough, according to sources who reviewed preliminary budget documents.
One city source was galled at the idea that the city would move forward with funding the grocery store plan — all while the mayor is sounding the alarm about a $5.4 billion budget gap plaguing the Big Apple.
“It’s ridiculous!” the source fumed.
The financial line item for the socialist freebie — which has not been previously reported — comes as Mamdani is ramping up pressure on the state to tax the rich, or he’ll be forced to raise property taxes to bail the city out.
The former Queens state Assemblyman vowed on the campaign trail that he could easily roll out the five government-owned-and-operated food stores for merely $60 million.
“It’s like a public option for produce,” Mamdani pitched in one of his polished social media clips, promising to pull taxpayer money from corporatization and funnel the funding to his network of stores.
But the fresh-faced Democratic socialist mayor has offered no concrete details on how the city would operate the day-to-day of a grocery store instead of offering subsidies to private businesses.
The actual cost of running the stores was not immediately known.
Another source said the plans also included funds for a “feasibility study” for the new initiative.
“Overspending on a study to look at a thing rather than actually spending the money on people is textbook limousine socialist move,” said one Democratic insider.
“Mamdani is going to be the first mayor to spend money on a study on how to do his job.”
EDC confirmed the plans, but said the $70 million did not include funding for the study, only the constructions on the five stores.
The agency didn’t say how much the study would cost or how long it would take.
Mamdani brushed off criticism on the campaign trail that called out his plan as half-baked.
He did say that the city-owned grocery shops would not pay property taxes or rent as a way to keep prices low.
Mamdani has challenged his ally, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Albany lawmakers to approve his Democratic Socialists of America-sponsored “tax the rich” plan — which the governor has largely resisted as she faces re-election this year.
Otherwise, Mamdani has claimed he’d be “forced” to raise New Yorkers’ property taxes by nearly 10% to fill the fiscal gap that he’s blamed on his predecessor Eric Adams.
“We inherited a historic budget gap,” the mayor said earlier this month when unveiling his massive $127 billion preliminary budget for 2027 — which critics have said does next to nothing to get spending under control.
The preliminary financial plan does call for library funding to be slashed by $30 million — a move that, when done by Adams amid the migrant crisis, led to months of backlash from New Yorkers, including Mamdani and his allies.
The investment for the study would mark a shift for the EDC, a quasi-independent organization meant to encourage economic growth in the Big Apple.
It currently is leaderless, The New York Times first reported earlier this month.
The agency has been at the center of nearly every major economic ventures that promote job growth through private-public partnerships.
But the EDC also has much less oversight, as a nonprofit, leading it to often get tapped my mayors for their passion projects.
City Hall did not respond for comment.
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