Big Apple vs. Oranges: Why NYC pays more and gets far less than Florida

When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani debuted his first budget last week, the $127 billion price tag sparked a range of inartful, and often inaccurate, comparisons on social media with spending by the state of Florida ($117 billion, with three times the population) and other governmental units as far away as Tokyo.

Florida Governor DeSantis doesn’t oversee trash pickup or legions of firefighters, just as Mayor Mamdani isn’t responsible for his state’s prison system or its sprawling wilderness preserves.