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Menin and Mamdani policy fights highlight NYC speaker’s ambition
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jul 16, 2026
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jul 16, 2026
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives.
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City Council Speaker Julie Menin is no socialist, but she’s staking out positions seemingly to the left of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
In recent weeks, Menin held up an agreement on the city budget over funding for housing vouchers known as CityFHEPS. Mamdani has walked back a campaign promise to fully fund the program after determining once in office that it is just too expensive.
Menin led a push to add $300 million more to it and ultimately agreed to a budget that spread funding over two years.
“Look, this is a situation where this was the right thing to do,” Menin said Monday on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” this week, describing it as also “fiscally prudent.”
“That was really where I had a disagreement with the mayor on that issue.”
The head of the city’s legislative branch is viewed as a moderating force at a City Hall currently led by the nation’s most prominent democratic socialist executive. Menin has pledged to bring her experience as a former small business owner and city commissioner to bear as she provides a reality check for what some see as Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky ideas.
Like many of her predecessors in the speaker’s office, Menin is seen as a possible candidate for mayor, which brings greater scrutiny to what motivates her policy positions.
But Menin’s latest moves show that she cannot be pigeonholed as a political moderate.
Menin is backing legislation that would give school paraprofessionals an annual $10,000 payment until their union, the United Federation of Teachers, secures a new contract with the city that increases their salaries by at least that much. Paraprofessionals start at a salary of roughly $34,000.
Mamdani said Monday that paraprofessionals are a “critically important part of our workforce.”
“I do also believe that the conversations around compensation are ones to be had at the negotiating table, and that'll continue,” he added, sounding a skeptical note about the legislation.
Democratic strategist Chris Sosa said what can appear to be unexpected political differences between Menin and Mamdani are simply the products of their positions in government.
“The reality is that they're answering to different people and have different responsibilities,” said Sosa, who is also a constituent of Menin, who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island.
“It is no secret to anyone that she is more conservative than Mamdani,” he said, arguing Menin is taking positions that are responsive to her colleagues. “If anything, what you're seeing is Mamdani trying to juggle the promises of a left-wing legislator with the realities of being the mayor.”
Some of Menin’s critics argue she takes positions based on boosting her own profile.
On Tuesday, she came out in support of a bill that would ultimately ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, a fight that has persisted for more than a decade. The legislation was renamed Romanch's Law after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, who died after being thrown from a horse-drawn carriage in the park last month.
Mamdani has said he supports the spirit of the law, but that he wants to help transition the carriage drivers into new lines of work.
“I think this is grotesque political opportunism by Menin,” said John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union that represents the carriage drivers. “She seized upon a moment of immense tragedy and used it to try to advance herself.”
He said Menin’s support for the legislation had implications for her political future.
“The TWU only supports candidates who support us,” Samuelsen said. “And attacking 150 immigrant transport worker jobs because it’s politically expedient is not supporting the TWU.”
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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