Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman says he plans to invoke a little-known provision of the New York State Constitution in an effort to block New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed $70 million taxpayer-funded network of city-owned grocery stores.

Blakeman argues that the proposal runs afoul of the Constitution’s “Gift and Loan Clause,” which bars municipalities from providing public funds or property to private entities.

“This unconstitutional subsidy poses a direct threat to long-standing, tax-paying businesses, risking widespread closures and job losses within the community,” Blakeman told The New York Post.

The constitutional provision, enacted roughly 150 years ago, was originally designed to prevent local governments from funneling taxpayer money to private railroad companies and other favored businesses or individuals. It also requires that public money be spent only for a legitimate public purpose or benefit.

According to Blakeman, Mamdani’s proposal to establish one city-owned supermarket in each of New York City’s five boroughs — with the stores operated by selected private companies — violates that constitutional restriction because taxpayer dollars would be used to subsidize prices, giving the government-backed stores an unfair advantage over private competitors.

“Local independent supermarkets and bodegas, which operate on razor-thin margins, cannot compete with a government-backed entity that faces zero overhead costs,” said Blakeman, who trails Gov. Kathy Hochul by six percentage points in the latest gubernatorial polling.

Although Hochul has endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral bid, she has previously expressed skepticism about the concept. Speaking to business leaders during an August 2025 breakfast in the Hamptons, she remarked, “I favor free enterprise.” She has not publicly addressed the proposal since then.

Any attempt to stop the plan is likely to end up in court, where judges would have to determine whether the proposal satisfies the Constitution’s public-benefit requirement.

Supporters of the plan are expected to argue that lowering grocery prices for city residents constitutes a valid public purpose. Blakeman, however, contends that government-operated supermarkets would ultimately eliminate competition, cost private-sector jobs, and reduce consumer choice.

James M. McGuire, a former New York appellate judge and chief counsel to former Gov. George Pataki, said Blakeman “may have a difficult time” prevailing because of existing “precedents” established by the New York Court of Appeals.

Gristedes CEO John Catsimatidis said he was unfamiliar with the Gift and Loan Clause but expressed hope that “common sense prevails” and that Mamdani’s grocery store proposal is ultimately abandoned, regardless of the outcome of the gubernatorial race.

The billionaire businessman and WABC radio owner suggested that if Mamdani genuinely wants to reduce grocery prices, the city should instead subsidize retailers purchasing staple goods such as milk, eggs, and bread in bulk, provided those savings are passed directly on to consumers.

Blakeman sharply criticized the proposal, calling it “an incredibly expensive socialist pipe dream that forces local mom-and-pop shops — who already pay astronomical state taxes — to compete against a government monopoly subsidized by those very same tax dollars.”

“We are literally forcing neighborhood grocers to fund their own demise,” he continued. “New York runs on fiscal responsibility, free enterprise, and the grit of local entrepreneurs — not bottomless government spending on Soviet-style supermarkets.”

{Matzav.com}