Public employee unions that endorsed Mamdani watch as he raids their pension funds

 by Monica Showalter

Most of New York City's public employee unions endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor -- UFT teachers union, AFSCME, SEIU Local 1199 -- a lot of the big important ones.

So it must have come as a surprise them that Mamdani's first target to finance his huge $120 billion budget is likely to come not from billionaires, as he claimed would happen, but from a raid on their pension funds, which by the way, cannot flee.

Oh, what irony. Instead of going after the millionaires when the billionaires fled, he went, like a bank robber, to where the money still was -- New York City's $294 billion public pensions under management. He must have wondered why he didn't think this up earlier, given that very few billionaires have that many billions, none of which can flee.

New York City's Transit Supervisors Organization, which is another union, and based on its 'you get what you vote for' warning on its site, probably did not endorse Mamdani, explained the dynamic this way:

 

Mamdani unveiled his preliminary budget proposal for 2027, outlining a plan to close a projected $5.4 billion deficit. Under state law, New York City must pass a balanced budget. To bridge the gap, Mamdani proposed a 9.5% increase in property taxes and “raiding” the city’s Rainy Day Fund and the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund. “The city would also take $980 million from its Rainy Day Fund and take $229 million from the Retiree Health Benefits Trust,” he said. Mamdani’s proposal would increase the city’s overall spending from former Mayor Eric Adams’ $115 billion budget to $127 billion. Mamdani described the property tax hike and reserve raid as a last resort, preferring to instead raise taxes on high-income earners and corporations, which would require approval from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who has promised New Yorkers she will not raise taxes in 2026. Without Hochul agreeing to raise taxes, Mamdani is left with raising property taxes as his administration’s primary lever.

So Mamdani has vowed to take money from property taxes and public pensions to finance his huge budget if he doesn't get the taxes from billionaires he's expecting, both to plug the $12 billion in overspending that's plaguing the city, and to pay for the rest of his $127 billion in expanded spending on DEI and other nonsense as cops are being laid off.

According to Martin Armstrong of Armstrong Economics:

Here we go again. A city runs expansive social programs, expands spending, promises benefits, and then suddenly discovers a “budget crisis” that requires raiding reserves, tapping rainy day funds, drawing from retiree trusts, and raising property taxes to maintain so-called fiscal stability. New York City’s latest proposal openly admits it may withdraw nearly $1 billion from its rainy day fund, hundreds of millions from retiree health benefit trusts, and consider a roughly 9.5% property tax increase to close a multibillion-dollar deficit. This is not an emergency measure. This is the predictable outcome of policy trends I have repeatedly warned about, particularly in cities dominated by progressive and socialistic fiscal models.

 

When the billionaires run, Mamdani still wants the money, and for him, there's no possibility of laying off a bureaucrat or two, or cutting fraud-filled programs to balance the budget, which New York City by law is required to do, he'd rather just get money the easy way by raiding the public employee union pensions. 

He's also planning to go after anyone with property as a miserable hoarding kulak with his nearly 10% property tax hike if the state doesn't hand him all the money he wants. This should drive the bodega owners, a group of whom endorsed him, right out of business, too. 

What this demonstrates is that for Mamdani, it's much easier to go where the money is -- which is in the five city public pensions, which hold about $60 billion in assets. Why try to collect from each and every little guy to replace the fleeing billionaire when the big pile is still there for the taking in the pension fund?

It beggars belief that he can do this legally as mayor, but somehow he can, and analysts say what he is proposing is a borrowing game: By law, New York's public pensions must be paid no matter what. So, if he helps himself to the pension cash, the checks will get written, but he will have to borrow from another body to pay them, and so on and so on, until the city's credit rating goes down and borrowing cannot be had for much of any price. 

So as the Transit Supervisors say, 'you get what you vote for.'

The one silver lining here is that maybe the rest of the country can take note of what electing a socialist to power does for the pension funds, even, or especially, if one is a public employee.

I imagine they'll just blame Trump but on the other hand, as I believe Glenn Reynolds has been know to say: everyone is a conservative about things he knows best -- in this case, and one's own pension is one of those things that can concentrate the mind.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/02/public_employee_unions_that_endorsed_mamdani_watch_as_he_raids_their_pension_funds.html