Mamdani allocates $500K for reparations talks as NYC faces $5.4B deficit

Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City has set aside $500,000 to fund community discussions on reparations and other forms of assistance for Black New Yorkers as a major budget deficit looms, internal communications show.

An internal message, dated January, detailed how more than two dozen groups would be given tens of thousands of dollars each to participate in “conversations to discuss the development of a Reparations study” and to gather “input on the early development of the citywide Truth, Healing and Reconciliation plan.” 

Funding, according to the document, “allows for each community member to receive an incentive for their time” and covers the costs of providing participants with “refreshments.”

Amid the reparations spending, New York City faces an estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit throughout the next two fiscal years. Mamdani thus far has not proposed service cuts to address the shortfall, opting instead to seek out increased taxes and dip into the city’s emergency cash reserves while increasing funding for racial equity initiatives.

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Mamdani has justified his racially focused policies by stating that “Black and Latino New Yorkers” have “been pushed out of this city for decades” and are “bearing the brunt” of the rising cost of living in New York City.

Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, meanwhile, has said that the mayor’s race-based policies sound “fishy/illegal” and pledged to investigate.

The city memo reads, “We must do this work so that we can begin to heal from the harms of the past that have bled into our present and threaten our future. The work of Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation will not stop until we see a better New York City – a New York that is engaging in healing from the traumas of the past, has ended current abuse, and is on the path of a racially equitable and just city for all.”

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In his preliminary budget, released in February, Mamdani requested $4.6 million for the Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), the body responsible for holding the reparations talks, and an additional $5.6 million for the Office of Racial Equity. The more than $10 million in combined funding for the two municipal bodies would represent a roughly $3 million increase from the prior year.

CORE will continue its work on “Reparations, Truth, Healing and Reconciliation” until it releases its July 2027 “Final report for Reparations Study” and its June 2028 “Implementation for Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Plan,” per its website.

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The internal communications, first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, claim that more than 400 people had attended reparations conversations as of January.

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Under a local law passed in 2024, New York City is required to consider “financial or in-kind restitution” as well as “compensation for moral or economically assessable damage” and “public apologies” for the descendants of African slaves. 

The New York City mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment sent by Fox News Digital Friday.