It didn’t take Zohran Mamdani long at all; he’s already calling for higher property taxes on New Yorkers after NY Gov. Kathy Hochul made it clear that she wouldn’t approve higher taxes on corporations and wealthy New Yorkers.
To fund his Fiscal 2027 budget, Mamdani announced that he’d raise property taxes by 9.5% and raid the city’s “rainy day fund.” From the budget explanation from the mayor’s office:
Absent new revenue authority, the City will be forced to use the only tools currently available to increase revenue and fill this gap: property taxes and the use of reserves. The $127 billion FY 2027 Preliminary Budget assumes a 9.5 percent property tax rate increase — generating $3.7 billion in FY 2027. The City also applied $980 million from the city’s Rainy Day Reserve Fund in FY 2026 and $229 million from the Retiree Health Benefit Trust in FY 2027 in order to balance the budget as legally required.
Of course, there was no thought of cutting the budget to balance it out. Only arguing over who would be tapped to pay for Mamdani’s political agenda. He places the blame squarely on everyone else.
He blames former Mayor Eric Adams for the budget gap, writing:
TODAY, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Preliminary Budget, outlining the scope of a fiscal crisis inherited from the prior Administration…
He blames the Governor for not allowing him to tax the wealthy:
There are two paths to bridge the city’s inherited budget gap. The first path is the most sustainable and fairest: raising taxes on the wealthiest and corporations, and ending the drain by fixing the imbalance between what the City provides the State and what we receive in return….If we do not go down the first path, the City will be forced to go down a second, more harmful path of property taxes and raiding our reserves…
Action Line: Whether or not Mamdani can eventually cajole Governor Hochul into supporting his increased corporate and wealth taxes remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Mamdani is prepared to put his personal political agenda ahead of the hard-working New Yorkers who will foot the bills for his largesse. Elections have consequences, and NYC residents are about to learn that the hard way. What’s going to happen when property taxes are raised but landlords can’t raise rents to match? Building maintenance will be neglected, and unsafe and unsanitary conditions could take root. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
