Mamdani’s $70M City-Run Grocery Plan Ripped, Experts Say Taxpayers Will Pay Twice

Critics counter that eliminating a cost for the store does not eliminate the cost itself — it simply transfers that burden to taxpayers.

For independent bodegas and supermarkets, the concern is even more immediate.

They could soon find themselves competing against stores whose landlord, financial backer, and rule-maker is the same government collecting their taxes.

And that is the central challenge facing Mamdani’s experiment: City Hall may be able to mandate lower prices at the register, but economists warning against the plan say it cannot make the underlying costs disappear.

Someone still has to pay the difference.

Under Mamdani’s $70 million plan, critics fear that someone will ultimately be New York taxpayers.