NYC Subway

New York City residents collected $2.6 billion in welfare payments in 2025, and that was before Zohran Mamdani took office. Do you think that number will go up or down now that he is running the city?

The $2.6 billion figure represents a 71 percent increase in payments since 2022.

This is simply not sustainable. As the saying goes, something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

FOX News reports:

New Yorkers collected $2.6 billion in welfare cash payments last year, city data shows

New York City doled out more than $2.6 billion in cash assistance to city residents in 2025, a Fox News Digital review of city records showed.

The money reached a record 864,999 people, a 30-year high not matched since before former Mayor Rudy Giuliani instituted major welfare reform in the early 2000s.

The $2.6 billion figure represents a 71% increase from 2022’s $1.57 billion, data showed.

When coupled with payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the city paid out more than $7 billion in welfare to residents in 2024, according to a Fox News analysis of data from the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA).

The rise in welfare payments comes as some of New York City’s wealthiest contemplate a Big Apple exodus due to what many have described as a policy environment unfriendly to businesses and moneymakers.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin notably threatened to put a major Midtown renovation on hold for his Citadel offices after socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani targeted him by name in a video announcing a new tax on second homes in the city.

More from the New York Post:

New York City dished out welfare checks to nearly 865,000 people over the past year — a historic handout that has sent public assistance spending skyrocketing to a record-breaking $2.7 billion, The Post can reveal.

The city’s Department of Social Services served a staggering 864,999 welfare recipients for the 12-month period ending May 30, a whopping 55.7% increase since 2022 and totals the Big Apple hasn’t seen in roughly 30 years, an examination of agency records found…

“This is the Communist Playbook 101: make everyone reliant on the government, so the masses have no choice but to support the people signing their checks,” predicted Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens).

“This is only going to get worse as the Democratic Socialists of America ramp up their tax-the-rich rhetoric and drive even more jobs out of the city. With every job they force out, the far left gets one more person dependent on them. It’s all part of the plan.”

Bear in mind that all of this is unfolding as wealthy people are fleeing the city because of Mamdani.

Where do the welfare checks come from when all the money has left the city?