New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is spending $1.6 million in taxpayer money on social media videos, text message blasts, and other outreach pushing five ballot questions, and what a coincidence, those ballot questions would hand his office a whole lot more power.
Just think about this for a minute. Almost $2 million in taxpayer money was wasted by this guy on things no one asked for. New Yorkers deserve a refund!
City law generally bars officials from using public funds to advocate for or against ballot initiatives. But Mamdani’s office says the commission is charged under state law with public education and is simply making sure voters are “properly informed.” Right. Nothing says neutral public education like a cartoon-style video of the mayor racing around City Hall to Looney Tunes sound effects while boasting “New Yorkers will be able to vote on how fast our government runs.”
The five ballot questions before voters in the November 3 general election would streamline city processes, sure, but they’d do it by stripping oversight from the City Council and local community boards. One would eliminate public hearings and Council review for private uses of public space like outdoor dining sheds. Another would speed up so-called street safety projects, think bike lanes and bus lanes. A third would transfer authority over certain city property sales and office leases from the City Council to the mayor-controlled City Planning Commission. In other words, less democracy, more Mamdani. You can read more about Mamdani’s ballot question ad campaign and the critics calling it out.
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola didn’t mince words. “Taxpayer dollars are supposed to be used to serve the public, not bankroll the mayor’s political agenda,” she said. She went further: “The whole thing is completely illegitimate, and we are getting closer to socialist totalitarianism every day with this administration. These proposals want to take power away from the people and put it in the hands of bureaucrats.”
The ads, according to critics, violate the spirit of city law by trying to influence election results rather than simply encouraging people to vote. The glowing campaign touts all of this as a path to “faster government” that cuts red tape, but never once mentions what voters would actually be giving up, namely, the checks and balances that keep one guy from running the whole show.
So to recap: a socialist mayor in New York City used your money to make a cartoon video of himself, promoting ballot questions that his own appointed commission put on the ballot, questions that would make him more powerful. And he’s calling it education. Democrats really do think you were born yesterday.
The party of wasted, stolen, fraudulently used taxes strikes again.
