There were a bunch of compromises, but a lot of the budget closures came from cleaning up corrupt nonsense from past mayors, state obligations that governors had pawned off on the city, and the tax on wealthy second homes.

It isn't the perfect situation to be in, but it's a whole lot better than anything they've had before, and it can technically be called a balanced budget, something nobody else could pull off. And best of all, they did it without raising taxes on the people, or cutting services, something the wealthy insisted was impossible.

A Balanced Budget is the first step, and now that the city is on somewhat solid footing, it can use future tax revenues to shore up their position even better, address some the compromises they had to make, and build on their successes.

Or we can just invent all kinds of fantasies why the Socialist mayor's obvious successes are really failures.