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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warns that finances in the nation’s third most populous city have “reached a point of no return.”
The mayor said this week that the city will need to take steps to deal with looming budget shortfalls and that key systems that Chicago provides, including education, housing, health care and transportation, are “woefully underfunded.”
Eight-hundred miles to the east, there are concerns in the nation’s most populous city that if democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November as New York City’s next mayor, the city could be headed for a fiscal abyss similar to the crisis half a century ago, when it came close to bankruptcy.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE WARNS ‘HALLOWEEN COMES EARLY ‘ AS CITY FACES SHORTFALLS
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s mayoral nominee in New York City, speaks to reporters on Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the 2025 race for New York City’s Democratic Party mayor nomination and who is running for re-election as an independent, struck a deal with the city council on a roughly $116 billion budget for fiscal year 2026.
“There are no perfect budgets. But we have come a long way, and this one gets pretty close,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a press conference announcing the deal in late June.
CUOMO FLIPS SCIPT ON MAMDANI IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL RACE
But the 33-year-old Mamdani, who is the polling frontrunner over Adams, former New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and two other contenders in November’s general election, is running on an expensive platform to tackle affordability and inequality in one of the nation’s most expensive cities.
Mamdani grabbed national attention in late June after topping Cuomo and nine other candidates in the Democratic Party primary, as he took a big step towards becoming the first Muslim and first millennial mayor.
Former New York Governor and…
