Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be free to sidestep tough decisions when he presents his first budget a month after taking office on Jan. 1, 2026.

That’s mostly because Wall Street is booming, on pace to see record profits of more than $60 billion this year. Lavish year-end bonuses paid out starting early next week will provide a boost to the city’s economy and to tax revenue.

But he will soon face a worsening economic picture. While the administration of departing Mayor Eric Adams has relentlessly portrayed the city’s economy as a great success story, job growth in the last two years has been concentrated in low-paying health care jobs . Poverty has increased , and wages for most have not kept up with the cost of living — major themes in Mamdani’s winning message.

And as the months

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