Mamdani addressed NYC's cash crunch with Wall St. windfall, delayed retiree health fund payment

By Melissa Russo and Tara Guaimano • Published July 16, 2026 • Updated on July 16, 2026 at 7:17 pm

The Mamdani administration was able to dig itself out of a major cash flow crisis thanks to an unanticipated billion-dollar windfall from Wall Street last month — and by delaying payments to a health care trust fund for retired city workers, according to a new analysis by City Comptroller Mark Levine. 

But the Comptroller is warning the Mamdani administration’s fixes are just the latest band-aid-style solution to a structural budget imbalance he has said leaves the city “vulnerable.”

NBC New York first reported on June 11 that the looming cash crunch had caused the Mamdani administration to consider delaying several billion dollars in payments owed on July 1 to cash-strapped nonprofits with city contracts to care for needy New Yorkers. City government sources familiar with projections under review at City Hall confirmed that without taking steps to address the cash flow the city could go cash negative by November.

But on June 15 — just one day before hundreds of nonprofit workers planned to protest Mamdani outside City Hall — his budget team pulled the plug on the idea, announcing they would pay the nonprofits on time after all.   

But until now, the question of exactly how City Hall had resolved its cash flow issues remained a mystery, even as they started paying nonprofits on July 1. The mayor and his budget director did not offer specifics when asked by NBC New York at a June 30 news conference to announce details about a final NYC budget deal.

Asked at a separate news conference, Gov. Kathy Hochul initially said she had helped to resolve the issue, but her spokeswoman later said Hochul had misspoken.

An updated financial forecast released by the comptroller on July 16 sheds some new light, revealing that the Mamdani administration decided to delay a payment of $3.7 billion into the Retiree Health Benefits Trust (RHBT), a reserve fund established in 2006 to protect the city’s ability to meet long-term contractual obligations for retired city workers. The $3.7 billion payment customarily would have been made in June, during the prior fiscal year, according to the comptroller, but is now being pushed back to Dec. 2026.

Mamdani administration officials told NBC New York that retirees will see no impact on their benefits, which are funded separately on a pay-as-you-go basis. The comptroller said he was also assured by City Hall there’s enough money to cover retiree claims at least through the end of the 2026 calendar year. 

“If he has a cash flow issue today, we don’t have a guarantee that he won’t have a cash flow concern in December,” said Marianna Pizzitola, President of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, which represents more than 250,000 retired city employees. "In the meantime, that fund is not earning interest on that almost 4 billion dollar IOU."

Pizzitola added that Mamdani has yet to grant to requests for a meeting with retiree representatives who have been battling changes to their health care plans in court since 2021. 

“It’s ironic Mayor Mamdani is counting on the retirees, borrowing money from our Health Benefit Trust Fund to manage a cash flow problem, without ever having met with us,” Pizzitola said, adding that in her view, Mamdani has not demonstrated that he cares about the city’s elderly and disabled former workers. 

“Mayor Mamdani cares deeply about New York City’s past public servants, and he will always fight to ensure that our city is one that they can afford to thrive in after their service to our city,” said Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for Mayor Mamdani.

As he worked to address the city’s looming cash crunch, Mamdani also benefitted when tax revenues for the month of June landed more than a billion dollars higher than projected. According to preliminary June collections reported by the comptroller, business and general corporation taxes — fueled largely by Wall Street profits — came in $850 million above expectations last month. And personal income and pass-through entity taxes also exceeded June expectations by more than $200 million.

A spokesman for the mayor said while the city’s budget is balanced, its cash flow needs to be managed on an ongoing basis. 

“The City is carefully managing the timing of its payments while remaining committed to meeting its obligations, including those required under the new local law governing advances to eligible nonprofit organizations," Rauschenbach said. "All eligible nonprofits are in the process of being paid, and we expect the balance to be paid out in the coming weeks."

In a statement, Comptroller Levine said his July 16 forecast shows that unexpectedly strong Wall Street revenues and accounting maneuvers have improved the city’s liquid cash situation.

“That is good news,” Levine said, “but it also underscores how heavily we continue to rely on the financial sector and short-term fiscal strategies to make up for the structural imbalance between recurring revenues and recurring spending.”

Levine said that city government must do more to correct the imbalance now, before it threatens services New Yorkers rely on in the future.  

In response to the comptroller’s critique, Rauschenbach said the mayor had faced a historic, inherited deficit and worked with Hochul and the city council to tax the rich while strengthening reserves and securing new sources of revenue and more than $1.7 billion in savings.

“The mayor has also directed our city's chief savings officers to continue identifying sustainable, long-term savings and efficiencies,” Rauschenbach said.

Andrew Rein of the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group that analyzes city finances, said it’s great news that the city’s budget is balanced and that revenues continue to be strong.

“That helps the city budget and it helps New Yorkers. But it doesn’t solve the fact that the city is spending more than it can afford in the long run. The administration should be redoubling efforts to increase efficiency and shrink programs that are not delivering so we can focus on the services New Yorkers really need,”  Rein said, adding that Mamdani's newly created team of chief savings officers should plan to double or triple the number of tax dollars saved in the coming years.