Mayor Zohran Mamdani told New Yorkers in late January that the city is staring down a fiscal deficit of at least $12 billion, and that closing it will require the state to raise taxes on the wealthy. Standing in City Hall’s Blue Room flanked by First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and budget director Sherif Soliman, Mamdani said the city faces a budget gap of $2.2 billion this year that would balloon to $10.4 billion the following year, the largest shortfall the city has confronted since the Great Recession, according to an account of the briefing published by Hell Gate.