Free buses. Free child care. City-run grocery stores. Brand-new union-built, publicly subsidized housing.<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani makes it sound so simple<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the mayor of New York City isn\u2019t a monarch. He can\u2019t unilaterally do anything he wants.<\/p>\n Much of the job is drudgery \u2014 grappling with budget and legal complexities, hard trade-offs and bitter compromises.<\/p>\n Ideology and idealism must give way to pragmatic reality.<\/p>\n If Mamdani wins Tuesday, he\u2019ll need to understand these details \u2014 and earn the cooperation of other leaders \u2014 if he wants to achieve even a fraction of his agenda.<\/p>\n Take free buses: The mayor has no power over fares.<\/p>\n The MTA, a state agency, runs the city\u2019s trains and buses through a board appointed by the governor \u2014 and CEO Janno Lieber is highly skeptical<\/a> of Mamdani\u2019s pledge.<\/p>\n Lieber, a realist, doesn\u2019t like \u201cbumper-sticker decision-making,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n The MTA doesn\u2019t treat \u201cNew York like it\u2019s Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s laboratory: Let\u2019s just attach the electrodes and see what happens,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n Mamdani, in response, said he took Lieber\u2019s rejection \u201cwith a grain of salt.\u201d<\/p>\n But he can\u2019t implement free buses without the support of those with the power to make it a reality.<\/p>\n Lieber\u2019s opposition isn\u2019t merely philosophical; it\u2019s rooted in financial and legal reality, a world Mamdani assiduously avoids.<\/p>\n The MTA has pledged future bus revenues to its bondholders \u2014 that is, the money collected from bus fares is used as a guarantee to the MTA\u2019s lenders.<\/p>\n Alone, the authority can\u2019t legally terminate a revenue stream upon which lenders relied when buying its debt.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amending the bond agreement requires the MTA to substitute an equally reliable source of income, plus the bondholders\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Good luck getting either: The buses generate hundreds of millions of dollars in fares and cost nearly a billion dollars to operate annually. Bondholders want security.\u00a0<\/p>\n With his grain of salt, Mamdani insists he can control a system he does not command.<\/p>\n After all, he touts that he \u201cmade one bus route free in every single borough.\u201d<\/p>\n In Mamdani\u2019s world, if it\u2019s possible to pull one brick from a wall without it collapsing, then surely it\u2019s possible to remove all of them.<\/p>\n Speaking of bricks, Mamdani is calling for public construction of 200,000 affordable housing units, which he says will cost $70 billion.<\/p>\n But he hasn\u2019t explained where the money will come from, or whether borrowing that much would exceed the city\u2019s debt limit, which is set by the state Constitution and by statute.<\/p>\n And how can he build at $350,000 per unit, when affordable housing units routinely cost\u00a0more than $600,000 each to construct \u2014 and sometimes close to a million?<\/p>\n He reduces these realities, too, to a grain of salt.<\/p>\n Even if he could secure the money, he still hasn\u2019t made his views known on Ballot Proposals 2, 3 and 4, which would weaken City Council members\u2019 unilateral veto over rezonings, making his construction promise more plausible.\u00a0<\/p>\n If he\u2019s serious about his housing agenda, he would support the measures \u2014 but he\u2019s more concerned about ruffling the council\u2019s feathers: It\u2019s run a disgraceful disinformation campaign against the proposals.<\/p>\n If the City Council can cow him, just imagine\u00a0what Donald Trump could do.<\/p>\n To fund his $6 billion child-care proposal and others, Mamdani wants<\/a> a new tax hike on corporations statewide and an added 2% tax on city residents\u2019 personal incomes over $1 million.<\/p>\n But since the mayor doesn\u2019t have the power to levy new taxes, he\u2019ll need to get the legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign off \u2014 so that businesses in Poughkeepsie can pay for Mamdani\u2019s wishlist.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n He enjoys the endorsements of Hochul and Albany leaders, but she has repeatedly promised<\/a> not to raise income taxes \u2014 as recently as last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even if she budges, it won\u2019t be for his full $10 billion ask<\/a>.<\/p>\n