Zohran Mamdani: “Our city was reckoning with a $12 billion deficit, a fiscal…”

“21 weeks ago, I spoke directly to New Yorkers about the scale of the massive budget crisis that we had inherited. It was January. Snow lay on the ground. Our city was reckoning with a $12 billion deficit, a fiscal crisis larger than any since the Great Recession. For too long, New York City had relied on budgeting tricks instead of budgeting honestly. Costs were hidden. Fiscal cliffs were ignored. Difficult decisions were deferred for someone else to make.” (02:14–02:22)

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.