Further delaying pension payments would significantly help Mr. Mamdani as he grapples with a $5.4 billion deficit through June 2027. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called the $5.4 billion budget deficit a "generational fiscal crisis." One idea to solve it would entail pushing off or decreasing payments to pension funds for city employees, possibly to the next generation. "Why should my child pay for his fifth-grade teachers salary and pension benefits in 2040?" said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission.