The new mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani has announced that a tax hike is needed in New York to pay for his $127 billion budget – which has a $5.5 billion shortfall.
Mamdani saying if Governor Kathy Hochul doesn’t raise taxes at a state level, he’ll be forced to hike taxes on homeowners and raise other taxes on the working class and small businesses.
This as residents in the city continue to complain of the piles and piles of trash that consistently line the city streets – the mountains of snow that do not get plowed, rats running around and even visible maggots in trash cans around the city.
“Today, I’m releasing the City’s preliminary budget. After years of fiscal mismanagement, we’re staring at a $5.4 billion budget gap — and two paths.”
“One: Albany can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations and address the fiscal imbalance between our city and state.”
“The other, a last resort: balance the budget on the backs of working people using the only tools at the City’s disposal.”
“The first path matches a structural crisis with a sustainable and fair solution. I know where I stand.”
Critics are pointing out that Mamdani did not give the third option – which is of course spending less, especially spending less on illegal migrants.
Mamdani wants state lawmakers in Albany to levy new taxes on wealthy people and businesses to generate revenue and correct what he described as a structural imbalance in funding between New York City and the state.
However, if that doesn’t happen he will raise taxes on the middle class to pay for his budget.
The preliminary budget proposal is about $127 billion for the upcoming fiscal year which starts on July 1st – its significant increase from prior years.
City Comptroller Mark Levine described Mamdani’s plan as “extreme,” involving not only property tax hikes but also draws on reserves.
Just to put things into perspective the entire state of Florida has a budget of about $115 billion – which is more than $10 billion less than Mamdani’s in New York City – despite Florida having three times the number of people in the state at about 24 million, and Florida doesn’t have an income tax.
