Mamdani’s utopian vision faces reality
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday unveiled his first budget , which came in the form of a threat. Given the deficit he inherited, he warned, if the state does not approve his plans for a destructive wealth tax, the city would be forced to impose a staggering 9.5 percent property tax increase.
The tax, which would hit 3 million residential properties and 100,000 commercial buildings, would immediately increase the housing costs of working-class New Yorkers, regardless of whether they own homes or are renters whose owners pass the taxes onto them. This would represent the abandonment of Mamdani’s “affordability” agenda, of which cheaper housing was one of the core pillars. The mayor isn’t even trying to hide that fact. His own budget document projects that the median income of those affected by the tax hike would be $122,000 — which doesn’t go as far in New York City as it does elsewhere, and of course, half of the people would be below the median.
On top of that, this plan would require raiding the city’s rainy-day fund as well as a health benefits fund for retired city workers.
This “harmful path” would be completely avoidable, he said, if only New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature would approve his plan to raise taxes on higher-income individuals and corporations. A wealth tax would require approval of the state government, and Hochul, currently running for reelection, has indicated opposition. But the city could hike property taxes on its own.
Aside from the plan being bad policy, Mamdani doesn’t exactly have the leverage he thinks he does. Immediately after he released his budget, the top two Democratic lawmakers on the city council who would have control over property taxes and could have helped make his bluff more convincing poured cold water on the idea.
“At a time when New Yorkers are already grappling with an affordability crisis, dipping into rainy day reserves and proposing significant property tax increases should not be on the table whatsoever,” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and finance committee chairwoman Linda Lee declared in a joint statement.
Mamdani’s push for a wealth tax, which has failed whenever it has been tried (never raising the promised revenue and hurting the economy by causing those with more money to move), rests on the fiction that those with means aren’t paying their fair share. But according to an analysis by the Empire Center for Public Policy, “Filers in the top 1 percent — which roughly corresponds to incomes of $1 million or more — accounted for 46 percent of income tax paid and one-third of total state tax revenue in 2023,” which is the most recent year with available data. Meanwhile, according to the state comptroller’s office , on Wall Street’s contribution to New York City specifically: “The securities industry is a major tax contributor to the state and city through business taxes on profits and personal income taxes on employees’ salaries. The industry generated an estimated $6.7 billion in revenue for New York City in fiscal year (FY) 2025, up 35.1% from the prior year, and represented 8.4% of the city’s total tax collections that year.”
If Mamdani is actually concerned about closing the city’s fiscal deficit, an obvious place to start would be to cut spending. Instead, he is proposing increasing the budget by $5 billion to $127 billion. By comparison, Governor Ron DeSantis proposed a budget of $117 billion for the entire State of Florida. This gap exists despite the fact that New York City’s population is 8.5 million and the population of Florida is 23.5 million.
If there is any good that may come out of the Mamdani experiment, it is that it will provide yet another high-profile example of what happens when the grandiose fantasies of utopian socialism encounter reality — and math.
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I hate to say it, but I think the people of New York City just got lucky.
They don't deserve it. They should get what they voted for.
The "1%" own 32% of the nations wealth, and pay 46% of the taxes. You might think that ratio is more than fair to the "99%" but it is not for obvious reasons.
They own wealth, pay 46% of taxes (the top 5% pays 75%) and they create jobs. Why kill that?
A wealth tax has never worked, nor has socialism.
Is this actually a wealth tax or simply an additional income tax on high earners?
There is a massive, massive difference.
I'd say it is a tax hike being called a wealth tax.
OK, but do you see the difference?
We already tax income, and income tax rates change all the time. Creating an extra bracket for taxable incomes over a certain threshold and adding a couple of points on that rate is hardly an earth shattering move.
Taxing wealth is a whole different thing.
I understand. I think he uses words for his base.
What are those "obvious reasons"?
The more you make; the more you owe to society. After all, you didn't get there alone. Especially if every dime you have you stole.
May I ask how much you returned to society, how much extra you donated to the treasury....
Or does your post not count for some?
I think the questions are "where does that stop?" and "what's with all the hate?"
At some point we need to recognize that we all benefit from good roads, schools, police, firemen, military etc., so we all should be kicking in something.
Also, at some point we need to ask why we get so angry when somebody makes a shitload of money, and why we exempt people like Taylor Swift, George Lucas or Lionel Messi from that ire.
Are you saying that Taylor Swift etc... don't pay their taxes?
Not at all.
I'm saying people (liberals specifically) don't seem to resent them for their wealth that way they do people who make their money in non-entertainment businesses like tech or finance or real estate.
It has nothing to do with their occupation, it's all about ideology... or perception of same. Nikki was great till she wasn't... etc.
I have no problem with being a good socialist. Paying for cops, EMS, roads, etc... Is what socialism is all about. Billionaires paying no taxes by using loopholes built into the system by greedy billionaires is a whole different thing.
P.S. Taylor Swift gives a substantial % to charity above and beyond her taxes.
So does Bill Gates...
PS that's called paying your taxes not socialism.
No. It isn't. That's the lie they like to tell when they're trying to lure you into the back of their van.
We have no idea how much they actually pay or what loopholes they may or may not actually be using. That doesn't stop people proclaiming that billionaires themselves shouldn't exist.
So do I. So do a huge number of rich people.
Again, I'm not criticizing her. It's her money. What she does with it is none of my damned business. She doesn't owe me or anyone else the slightest iota of an explanation.
It just seems inconsistent that we don't think people like Steve Cohen or Sid Bass deserve their money but we don't seem to worry about how much she has.
Yeah, I guess so. Anything is OK as long as you're part of the Church of LW Politics.
That's called government. All government is not socialism.
Trump bragged about paying no taxes because he was smarter than everybody else. Trump is a sociopath.
Guess what. Trump lied.
That dude Randolph Madcow on MSDNC got hold of his leaked tax returns and it showed he paid millions of taxes the year of that return.
Seems like we never heard about Trump's taxes again.
Wonder why that is? s/
He may be a sociopath, but that's not why.
None of us pay more tax than we're required to.
That is a bald faced lie. Trump never released his tax files, unlike presidents before him, because Trump is a thief and a tax cheat. I recall Trump lying and saying he could 't release them because "they were under review".
Anybody who defends Trump's Financials should be audited by the IRS.
This post is a bald faced lie. Show where I sid Trump released them. Some dude in the IRS leaked them to Madcow and she embarrassingly read them on air, having to tell her very small audience that he, indeed, paid his taxes.
"I recall Trump lying and saying he could 't release them because "they were under review"."
Do you have proof they weren't?
"Anybody who defends Trump's Financials should be audited by the IRS."
Ah, yes...good socialists want to punish anyone that dares not agree with their warped ideology. Pretty much the same as the democratic party.
They were leaked. There is an ongoing lawsuit about it.
Whoever pays the most taxes wins. I wish I paid more than Mark Zuckerberg Elon Musk Warren Buffett and Steve Bezos combined. Don't pay lots of taxes and stay poor. I don't care. It's up to you...
Wish I could pay lots of taxes so I could afford that Ferrari that I've always wanted. Love to be in a higher tax bracket. Sigh....
P.S. Made do by supercharging and nitrous and alcohol injecting a built to the hilt 1987 Mazda RX7 rotary engine. It blows an apex seal on occasion but when it runs, it really runs!
I have no pity for those paying millions in taxes. They're fine...
The RX7 was lots of fun to drive. My girlfriend had a red one in the mid 1980s. I recently rented a Subaru BRZ which drove similarly.
The suckers who fell for his promises and the "discovery" of a budget shortfall that's long been been public knowledge....