NYC BUDGET: Still no handshake between Mamdani and Menin as CityFHEPS fight comes down to deadline wire

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin entered the final stretch of budget talks Monday without a handshake deal, days after a fight over funding for the city’s rental assistance program derailed an expected agreement and sent Council members into the weekend demanding more money for CityFHEPS.

The absence of a deal one day before the June 30 budget deadline marked an escalation in what had become one of the final sticking points in Mamdani’s first budget negotiations with the Council.