ArcaMax

If Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor and implements the changes he is promising, expect the city's financial condition and public safety to deteriorate rapidly. Think criminal bedlam, antisemitic rioters allowed full rein, and cutbacks to basic city services.

In such a crisis, desperate New Yorkers will look to Albany, where the governor has virtually unlimited power to curb the mayor's authority or remove him, even if no crime has been committed.

There is a safety valve, if a governor is willing to use it.

Before removing a mayor, state law requires the governor to present grievances against the mayor at a formal hearing. Even so, the governor's decision is final, not subject to review by any court. The New York Supreme Court calls it "the naked power of removal."

In the event a mayor is removed, the public advocate acts as mayor until a special election is held within 80 days.

The question is: Would Gov. Kathy Hochul have the guts to use her authority to protect the city, or would she sacrifice the city by pandering to the socialist flank of her party? Expect this to be a major issue in the 2026 gubernatorial election, when a Republican contender is likely to insist on an answer.

Right now, Gov. Kathy is cozying up to Mamdani, praising him as "eminently reasonable" and hinting she'll find $10 billion in the state budget to fund his long list of promised freebies, including child care and bus rides. That's happy talk. The state faces a $10-billion-a-year deficit.

Mamdani has promised to close Rikers Island. Thousands of violent inmates will be on the streets. Meanwhile, cops will be quitting in droves, according to former New York City Police Department Commissioners Bill Bratton and Ray Kelly.

While crime spikes, fiscal mismanagement will force the city to curtail essential services like sanitation and what's left of police protection. Mamdani is promising $6 billion a year in child care and $652 million a year in free bus service. The city is already facing a $17.1 billion deficit during what would be Mamdani's first three years at City Hall without the added fairytale freebies, according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

For half a century, ever since New York City's financial debacle in 1975, New Yorkers have taken comfort in knowing that a state-run Financial Control Board is in place to prevent the city from overspending and plunging into financial ruin. But the guardrails have turned into tissue paper under the state's one-party rule.

Reactivating the Financial Control Board requires the consent of the state legislature. Good luck. The top legislative leaders, all Democrats, have endorsed Mamdani.

There is no guardrail to prevent the city from going bankrupt or spiraling into criminal chaos except a governor's constitutional removal power. That power was invoked in 1932, when then-Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for a hearing to remove New York City's corrupt Tammany Hall Mayor Jimmy Walker.

FDR's effort was challenged in court, and the New York Supreme Court ruled that the governor's authority is "unlimited." It is the "naked power of removal."

Walker, seeing he was about to be ousted, resigned and fled to Europe.

Michigan and Florida also empower their governors to remove mayors for negligence or improper governance, not just illegal acts.

Ousting a democratically elected mayor is serious business, but almost every state has some constitutional mechanism to remove an incompetent or unfit mayor. Some states prefer recall, and others empower the legislature to make the call. As long as removal is followed promptly by another election, voters have the ultimate say.

The Citizens Union, a New York City nonpartisan good government group, sees the "potential democratic harm of ousting a duly elected official who represents over 8 million people" but concludes that a removal power is essential. The organization proposes an amendment guaranteeing that the mayor has a due process right to be heard and that the hearing occur within seven days. Even so, the final decision would still belong to the governor.

The Democratic Party in New York has been hijacked by the Democratic Socialists of America, largely with out-of-state money and manpower. Mamdani's extreme anti-capitalist, anti-cop and antisemitic promises, if implemented, threaten the survival of the city's economy and the safety of its residents, particularly Jewish New Yorkers.

The governor's removal power was created for such rare circumstances. It's vital that Hochul or her successor has the courage to use it when the need arises.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

----

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.