Good luck, New York.
With Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani inching closer to being sworn in, exactly how he'll pay for all his schemes to make NYC "more affordable" for people remains unclear. The day after the election, he was begging working-class New Yorkers for money to fund his transition team.
Earlier this week, he was asking for more money from those working-class voters. This time to the tune of $4 million. The entire focus of Mamdani's campaign has been to "tax the rich," but to do so, he needs Albany's approval, including Governor Kathy Hochul, who isn't in agreement on the issue. On Monday, the City Journal asked whether Hochul and Democrats would support his agenda in an election year.
Here's some of what they wrote:
Mamdani’s platform called for raising the city’s 3.88 percent top income tax rate by a record two percentage points. That’s four times the size of mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio’s proposed increase a dozen years ago, which then-governor Andrew Cuomo deflected by using state money to pay for de Blasio’s pre-K spending plans. Mamdani also wants to see the state’s corporate tax increase to 11.5 percent, tying New Jersey for the highest rate in the country. He’s never gotten around to explaining how the added state revenue would flow to the city government.
While Mamdani’s tax agenda is a tall order even by Albany standards, it’s noteworthy that Democratic leaders aren’t rejecting it out of hand. As Speaker Heastie says, “there will be a robust discussion on revenue raises next year.”
That leaves the governor as the biggest potential roadblock. Hochul’s mid-September endorsement of Mamdani included a disclaimer that she wasn’t “aligned with him on every issue,” taxes being the primary point of difference. “I’m not raising taxes on high net-worth people right now, because we cannot have them leave the state,” she later told the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview, Mamdani was asked about this in a recent interview.
Q: “How are you getting the $700M to make the buses free if the Governor is not for raising taxes?”
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 20, 2025
MAMDANI: “Through the raising of the state's corporate tax.”
Q: “But she said no…”
MAMDANI: “The most important fact is that we fund it, not the question of how we do it.” pic.twitter.com/rFiaHPAdSE
"How are you getting that money? The $700 to make the buses free into the MTA if she's not for raising taxes?" the interviewer asked.
"You know, I think two clearest ways to raise that money is through raising of the state's corporate tax to match that of New Jersey," Mamdani replied.
When the interviewer pointed out that Hochul isn't on board with that, Mamdani replied, "I think a lot of this still can be made, whether it's corporate tax or personal income tax on those who make more than a million dollars a year or more. I think that these are the clearest ways. I've also said that if there are other ways to raise this funding, the most important fact is we fund it, not the question of how we do it, but that we do it."
The threshold of a million dollars was echoed by a socialist school board member in Oregon. As Townhall reported last week, Tammy Carpenter advocated for a 90 percent tax rate on people making more than a million dollars a year, noting that was the tax rate in the 1950s. Adjusting for inflation, of course, means that a million dollars in 1950s money is actually more like $13 million today.
And Hochul is, of course, right. Wealthy New Yorkers — both private citizens and businesses — will simply pull up stakes and leave New York for tax-friendlier pastures. Because raising taxes does not make things more affordable. Corporate taxes get passed on to consumers, as do government-mandated minimum wage hikes.
Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani, an avowed Democratic Socialist, will be the next mayor of New York City.
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