NEW YORK (WABC) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani will call for a tax hike on the richest residents in the five boroughs of New York City.
The mayor made the announcement during a budget announcement at City Hall on Wednesday.
Mamdani has said he wants households making more than $1 million to pay an additional 2% in taxes.
He says it’s one of the only ways to erase the $12 billion deficit he inherited from the Adams administration.
The mayor said he is less concerned about a business exodus with a tax hike and more concerned with the exodus of working people who are being driven out of the city because of high costs of living.
Mamdani said housing and child care costs are the top retention issues for employers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said it is not a “news flash” that Mamdani wants to raise taxes, and raising income taxes on residents remains a non starter.
“I have said, and the news flash may be to you if you haven’t heard me, we are not raising taxes in the state of New York, we are not raising taxes for the sake of raising taxes, so he will continue to say what he needs to say,” Hochul said.
A spokesperson for former Mayor Eric Adams said he “inherited a city facing nearly $10 billion in debt, compounded by the worst public-health and economic crisis in New York City history. COVID devastated the economy, and the City was later forced to absorb billions in migrant-related costs that should not have fallen solely on local taxpayers.”
“Despite these challenges, Mayor Adams led a real recovery through steady leadership and tough decisions,” the spokesperson said. “Blaming him for decades-old City-State funding inequities is inaccurate and disingenuous.”
Mamdani also blamed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
A spokesperson for Cuomo released a statement that said in part, “Andrew Cuomo inherited an $11 billion deficit when he first took office and managed to close it through hard work and fiscal discipline — words that just aren’t in Mamdani’s vocabulary.”
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