Recent reports of New York City’s $12 billion budget shortfall have thrown a stark spotlight on the Mamdani administration’s financial strategy, suggesting a disconnect between fiscal reality and the administration’s optimistic assumptions. For those of us who have long cautioned against the city’s extravagant spending habits, the news comes as no surprise.

New York’s financial challenges seem rooted in an enduring habit of excessive spending, reminiscent of a sailor on leave. This fiscal approach, prevalent among the city’s socialist leadership, often involves attempting to solve every issue with additional funding—even when those issues arise from the very policies enacted by the administration. Since 2014, the city’s budget has swelled from $77 billion to an astonishing $112.4 billion, driven by this cycle of create-and-fix spending.

While new programs proliferate, essential services like public safety and waste management—the basic expectations of New Yorkers—are being neglected. This mismanagement is as unmistakable as the trash accumulating on our streets, starkly illustrating the shortcomings of Mayor Mamdani’s “warmth of collectivism.”

In stark contrast, New York City’s budget, supporting a population of 8.4 million and spanning 304 square miles, almost rivals that of Florida—a state with 23.3 million residents and 53,625 square miles. Florida’s $5 billion larger budget underscores the inefficiencies in New York’s governance under prolonged single-party Democratic rule, prompting many former residents to migrate south to tax-friendly Florida.

It is imperative to end this cycle of unchecked spending and re-establish a commitment to the financial stewardship that New York’s taxpayers deserve. This responsibility was notably disregarded during the de Blasio administration, which saw nearly $1.8 billion vanish into ineffective programs like the ThriveNYC mental health initiative and the Renewal school program. Add to this the $7 billion in “emergency” pandemic contracts, including a $224 million investment in medical equipment, later liquidated for a mere $500,000, and the scale of financial mismanagement becomes all too clear.

That fiduciary responsibility was cast aside on a massive scale by the de Blasio administration with failed programs like his wife’s ThriveNYC mental health initiative and the Renewal school program that together swallowed-up close to $1.8 billion in tax dollars. Not to mention, $7 billion in “emergency” contracts during the pandemic that included $224 million in medical equipment later sold for a measly $500,000.

The Adams administration was no better, throwing away $432 million in emergency contracts to DocGo, and more than $7 billion to house illegal immigrants, including gang members, in luxury hotels for $370 per room per day.

What’s worse is the amount of crime that we bought for this money. A Freedom of Information Law request that I made last year showed that there were approximately 4,000 criminal migrants in these shelters that were arrested for 16,000 crimes!

Only in a poorly run city like ours would citizens be forced to foot the bill to house, feed, and provide medical care (among other giveaways), to those creating mayhem and wreaking havoc. Thankfully, President Trump’s securing of the southern border and his enforcement of our immigration laws has led to the emptying of these shelters and crime plummeting across nearly every category.

However, whether it’s the cronyism at the NYC Department of Education which spends more per pupil than any other municipality in the nation or the unchecked costs of the nonprofits that run the homeless-industrial complex where a month’s stay is more than a middle-class family’s mortgage — taxpayers come last.

With a $12 billion hole, there is no room for the mayor’s pie-in-the-sky socialist programs. The abandonment of the Marxism and misguided policies he touted during his campaign and the realization that New York will only flourish with safe streets, less regulation, and respect for taxpayers might sound like wishful thinking, but it’s the only way our city can survive four years of Mamdani.

Malliotakis represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn in Congress and serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.