It seemed like a fairly rote step in an annual and lengthy municipal dance: a City Council speaker delivering an official response to a mayor’s proposed budget.
But this is New York City, and its new mayor, Zohran Mamdani — backed by a phalanx of supporters — did not see it that way.
Mr. Mamdani took to social media to explain to his 1.9 million followers on X why he opposed the speaker’s ideas on how to close an unusually large $5.4 billion budget gap. He denounced the ideas as “unrealistic” in a statement and deliberately mentioned the speaker, Julie Menin, by name in a separate video.
His supporters took up the cause, with some suggesting that Ms. Menin’s personal fortune, highlighted by her multimillion-dollar home in the Hamptons, was driving her refusal to embrace a tax increase on the wealthy.
An episode that began as a fiscal flare-up mushroomed into perhaps the most pointed political feud of Mr. Mamdani’s mayoralty — positioning Ms. Menin, a fellow Democrat, as a willing adversary.
It also posed a test of whether a social media army of engaged younger activists aligned with the mayor can effectively battle Ms. Menin, an Upper East Sider who has run two city agencies and the city’s census efforts.
This was not the first time Ms. Menin has sparred with the mayor.
She has raised concerns about some of Mr. Mamdani’s public safety agenda. And, embracing her identity as the City Council’s first Jewish speaker, she quickly moved to mandate buffer zones around houses of worship and schools after a protest outside a synagogue erupted last year. Mr. Mamdani has voiced concern about those bills, which were passed after being watered down from their original form.
In Ms. Menin, Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, may have found an ideal foil: a relatively centrist Democrat who holds different views from his and seems willing to fight over those differences.
In recent days, those opposing viewpoints centered on how to balance the city budget. Ms. Menin contended that the city did not need to increase property taxes, cut city services or raid cash reserves — three politically unpopular moves that the mayor had said would be necessary if the state did not raise taxes on high earners or on corporations.
Mr. Mamdani is hoping to receive enough funding from Gov. Kathy Hochul, either through direct aid or increased tax revenue, to plug the city’s budget hole. He has so far refused to make deeper cuts, and has seemed to have backed off from a “last-resort” property tax hike, which would raise $14.8 billion over four years.
In Ms. Menin’s estimation, the mayor could solve the budget crisis by solely recalculating costs and anticipated revenues. She even found enough wiggle room to demand another $1.1 billion to pay for city programs she and her Council colleagues wanted to see funded, including libraries and mental health resources for students.
Mr. Mamdani, in turn, accused her of fuzzy math.
“If her proposal was adopted, it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, and working New Yorkers would pay the price,” Mr. Mamdani said, seated at his desk during the one-minute video. “It double counts savings, overestimates revenues, exaggerates savings on interest payments.”
In a statement, Ms. Menin defended her approach to balancing the budget, insisting there was no need to cut services, raise property taxes or tap into reserves. She declined to characterize or address her growing rift with the mayor.
“Council members worked alongside our finance division to produce a thoughtful, data-driven response to the mayor’s preliminary budget plan,” Ms. Menin said. “We identified an alternative, fiscally responsible path to fund the services New Yorkers depend on.”
Mayors and council speakers are designed to be at odds. The legislative leaders are responsible for negotiating the city budget, now pegged at $127 billion, approving major real estate projects and holding city agencies accountable through public hearings. They have subpoena power, though they rarely use it. And they usually have higher political ambitions: The last five speakers have run for citywide office, three of them for mayor.
But this relationship is becoming particularly fraught particularly early.
Jon Paul Lupo, who negotiated for former Mayor Bill de Blasio with the City Council and is now a consultant, said the fracas reminded him of an often-quoted line from “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”
“That escalated quickly,” he said.
Mr. Mamdani has generally sought to find common ground with potential foes. He embraced Ms. Hochul, endorsing her for re-election and maneuvering to clear the Democratic primary field for her, despite her refusal to heed his call to raise income taxes on millionaires. He has developed a friendly rapport with President Trump, and pushed an ally to drop a bid to challenge Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, for re-election.
But Ms. Menin and Mr. Mamdani have seemed natural adversaries from the outset. They did not back each other in their quests for their current positions; after his election in November, his team tried unsuccessfully to help a challenger defeat Ms. Menin in the speaker’s contest.
They have made an effort to appear friendly at joint public appearances. But they disagree on whether to support a state tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers, have spoken very differently about policing and hold divergent views on Israel.
Ms. Menin has also publicly disputed the mayor’s budget strategy of withdrawing more than $1 billion in cash reserves — a decision that has led to warnings from the city comptroller and a downgraded fiscal outlook from ratings agencies.
But this week, the budget spat got more pointed and personal, with the mayor’s supporters and council members trading barbs online.
One Democratic lawmaker, Councilwoman Virginia Maloney, began an X post defending Ms. Menin by writing, “I know math is hard.” Another, Nantasha Williams, wrote, “If your entire budget analysis is ‘tax the rich,’ you may not actually understand the budget.”
The city’s branch of the Democratic Socialists of America went after Ms. Menin, writing, “What is surprising is how proud she is of her plan, despite how out of touch it is with the urgent need to sustainably address our city’s budget crisis.”
One of the biggest points of dispute between Ms. Menin and Mr. Mamdani is how much the city should expect to save from city jobs that remain vacant, with the two sides at least $1.2 billion apart.
The city budget director, Sherif Soliman, suggested that the City Council’s estimate of at least $1.5 billion in savings most likely included empty positions that would not yield savings if they were eliminated. For example, some jobs are funded with state or federal money.
Mr. Soliman also disputed the City Council’s estimated savings from citywide supplies and equipment, saying the analysis did not account for increased energy costs and other likely price increases and also called for savings from asset forfeiture money that’s already been spent.
Councilman Lincoln Restler, a member of the Progressive Caucus, tried to play peacemaker.
“The City Council’s budget response includes a number of smart proposals to help achieve savings, but there is no path to balancing this budget without substantial new revenue from Albany or harmful cuts to essential city services,” Mr. Restler said. “The best way to address the city’s deficit is for the mayor and City Council to be a unified front in securing significant new support from Albany.”
Sally Goldenberg is a Times reporter covering New York City politics and government.
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