NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling for New York State to hike taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals in order to address the city’s budget deficit, warning that the alternative would involve the city increasing property taxes and dipping into its reserves.
Mamdani has issued a preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget that involves a property tax hike, a prospect he has described as a “last resort.”
“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,” Mamdani noted in a Tuesday post on X.
The city council needs to green-light city budgets, according to the New York Times.
“As the mayor of New York City, I have a legal obligation to balance the budget. I will meet that obligation,” he said during remarks on Tuesday.
“Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes. We would also be forced to raid our reserves,” he said.
“This would effectively be a tax on working and middle class New Yorkers, who have a median income of $122,000,” said Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who ran on a platform that promised to tackle rent costs.
In his campaign for mayor, Mr. Mamdani repeatedly called for a wealth tax to help pay for a universal child care system. But in January, the governor and the mayor agreed on a plan to expand child care without raising taxes.
Now the mayor has shifted the rationale for raising taxes on those earning $1 million or more, saying that it was needed to address the budget gap — which he has blamed on inaccurate number crunching by his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams. (Mr. Adams has said he left Mr. Mamdani with over $8 billion in reserves.)
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…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 17, 2026
I believe that NYers are going to end up hating Mamdani more than they hated Adams. Just like after six months of electing Adams NYers were fed up, the same will happen with Mamdani. Hindsight is twenty twenty.
And all the liberal Jews voted for him. A terrorist and he’s not afraid to say it. And regardless if they will hate him, the damage will,be erasable. Plus the liberal and dems will cheat to keep him in. He actually lost the vote but they cheated with so many votes to make him the winner. It’s already been proven
Can you please bring proof for the allegation that there was widespread voter fraud?
This isnt good for anyone! It will be more expensive to buy a house and for renters as well, rent will be higher when to begin with its too high
Its like taking a problem and making it worse ! Middle class suffers again.
The struggle the sweat the reality !!
2 months in office…. Throughout his campaign he was א איבער חכם
Ridiculed the past Mayers. Hey the job is simple. Give NY’ers what they want, all is great….
Now he realizes how unrealistic his promises were, free rent, food, transit n more.
Reality hit him quick.
As another commentator said, (within a year) he will be the most hated mayor of NYC.
A Freilichin Adar. Hashem runs the world no one else.
Enjoy it for four
More years lol 😝
Maybe he can call ron desantis and ask how he runs a state more than triple new York’s population on a smaller budget with less taxes.
That’s one way to keep his campaign promise of making housing more affordable.
/s
It is not a 9.5 percent increase. It is a 50 percent increase. He is nearly doubling the tax rate. Class 1 homeowners (1-3 family) now pay a rate of approx 19 percent. Will now be close to 30. So if your assessed value is 40k. Times a 20 percent rate your annual taxes are 8k. Times a 30 percent rate they are 12k. That is a 50 percent increase. Not a 9.5 percent increase.
You get what you voted for !!
Only a small percentage of ppl voted and out of that he got less than 50%….
I urge every one to register as a Democrat so you can vote in democratic primary elections — in the general election you can vote republican but at least we can have greater power to not have idiots like Mamdani as a candidate by voting in democrat primary
If only people learned history and learned from previous mistakes
Every time I see his name I hear a grager.
He only won because he fooled people into believing that he would give them everything for free. But socialism always makes people poor and miserable. As does antisemitism.
I don’t know if it would make a difference in the outcome but all satmar and people like that there’s really no difference between satmar or all other anti smartphone guys.
They all voted for him!
Satmar did not vote for him. There were certain Satmar individuals invited him to their sukkah as a way to be close with him as he seemed he was going to Win. Williamsburg did not vote for him. Thirty percent of Jewish voters were secular jews
Most chassidim didn’t approve of those in the Satmar community who voted for ZM, but their relatively minimal numbers certainly don’t affect current NYC politics as much as you apparently think they do. Furthermore, you would do well to stop sounding so hateful.
I am surprised he didn’t blame Israel ( yet) for the gap in the NYC budget , raising taxes on the middle class of course that’s not only communism that’s a typical leftist democrat move, a cliché really but he couldn’t care less, his true goal is to spread radical Islamism
I hope you’re reading this mamdani because you will not be voted in a second term if you do as you threaten to. We will all suffer and absolutely noone approves of raising the cost of living!!!!!!