In scenes reminiscent of Ken Livingstone’s victory in London in May 2000, New York City last week elected its very own firebrand left-wing Mayor – Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old New York state assemblyman from Queens. Voter turnout was up by nearly a fifth on the previous election, making it the highest for a quarter of a century.
Mamdani has been elected on a platform of progressive commitments. His raft of high-profile policies includes, among other things, fast and free buses, rent freezes and a major social house building programme. As official at New York’s City Hall (pictured) turn their attention to implementing his manifesto, opponents and supporters alike are asking how many of his promises can be delivered by the machinery of government at his disposal and how they might be paid for.
For London, meanwhile, the same questions bring into focus yet again how much more power Mayors of New York wield compared with their London counterparts.
Mayor-elect Mamdani will soon be running everything from policing to health, from schools to public housing, from roads to water supply, waste and sanitation. His office will be responsible for an annual operating budget of some $115 billion (£87 billion) and a capital budget of $17.5 billion (£13 billion) along with a workforce of some 300,000 people. That is five to six times more than the £20 billion budget of the Mayor of London and the 50,000 workers of the Greater London Authority’s and its “functional bodies”. Furthermore, control of some of these services, including policing and transport, are shared with national government and London boroughs.
New York State government approval is required for varying some of the taxes Mamdani has talked about raising. Nonetheless, New York’s Mayors tap into a much broader tax base than is available to London’s. This includes property taxes, personal income tax, a sales tax and a general corporation tax. The Mayor can change property taxes, amounting to around $39 billion (£30 billion) and representing about 44 per cent of the city’s revenue, without state permission.
In contrast, the London Mayor’s tax-raising powers are limited to bits of Business Rates and a Council Tax precept. National government is the first and last arbiter of how much financial firepower he or she really has. It would be unthinkable for the Mayor of a major American city to have over half of their income determined by central government, but that’s a (generous) assessment of the situation in London today.
Perhaps only in the area of mass transport does the Mayor of London enjoy more direct control than his opposite number in New York. Largely for historical reasons, Transport for London (and its predecessors) evolved from being city-centric rather than regional (or statewide) bodies. As chair of TfL, the London Mayor enjoys direct control of the Tube, buses and other forms of mass transport. In New York, it is state government working through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) which provides nearly all public transport serving the city.
Mamdani may be able to deliver more bus lanes to speed services on his city roads, but the situation is much more tricky with bus fares. Leaving aside debate about the wisdom of his giving away the $500 million (£390 million) a year farebox, he will need the co-operation of the powerful MTA, New York state legislature and its governor in order to keep his promise. The MTA’s institutional culture means it may well demand that state lawmakers force it to make buses free, even if the City of New York is prepared to underwrite the cost.
In London, too, such a policy would face a major financial hurdle. Here, free buses could easily cost TfL £700 million ($920 million) a year in revenue from fares. With zero prospect of central government or the boroughs paying for such a move, the Council Tax precept would most likely need to increase. This might be by as much as 50 per cent. And even before being implemented, central government approval would be needed as well as a “yes” vote in a London-wide referendum.
In New York, roughly a quarter of the city’s population lives in rent-stabilised apartments in the private sector. Mamdani has pledged to freeze thise rents. The New York Mayor appoints members of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) that determines increases for this class of property. Assuming he can find a way of having individuals sympathetic to a rent freeze on the RGB – and avoid being sued – Mamdani might be able to deliver on this policy. But in London, the Mayor has no such authority. The power to administer such rent controls was one of the key election asks of Sir Sadiq Khan, but there appears to be no appetite for changing national legislation to allow this to happen.
Finally, with respect to house building, Mamdani wants to deliver 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next ten years. This could cost as much as $100 billion (£76 billion). Unless the city can hike taxes dramatically (property taxes would need to rise by a quarter), or access federal or state grants, expenditure at this sort of level would result in city debt limits being breached – as set out under the state constitution. In London the Mayor is largely at the mercy of central government for housing investment. At about 15 per cent of the value of Mamdani’s targeted spend, his sums are very modest.
Within weeks of taking office on New Year’s day, Mamdani is likely to face battles with an array of institutions as he tries to deliver his more radical and higher cost policies. At times, he will no doubt feel frustrated that he lacks the powers and resources to “cut through” and to implement change. Pity him not too much, though. London’s Mayor can but dream of having the powers and resources available to his New York equivalent.
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