New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned on Tuesday that he will be forced to raise property taxes to address the city's budget deficit if taxes are not increased for the wealthiest. «There are two paths to close the budget gap. The first is the most sustainable and fair: raise taxes on the richest and corporations and correct the imbalance between what the city provides to the state and what we receive in return,» Mamdani explained at a press conference. If this option is not carried out, he indicated, New York «will be forced» to increase property taxes and resort to raiding its reserves, which «will weaken our fiscal base in the long term and place the burden of solving this crisis on the working and middle class New Yorkers.» Specifically, Mamdani, who presented his preliminary budget for the 2027 fiscal year, advocated for increasing the personal income tax for New Yorkers earning more than $1 million annually, as well as raising taxes on the most profitable corporations. Thus, his preliminary budget of $127 billion would include a 9.5% increase in the property tax rate, which would cover a $5.4 billion deficit over the next two years. Before Mamdani, former mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio had already increased these levies to address the 2008 financial collapse and the pandemic crisis, respectively. The socialist's proposal also includes extracting nearly $1 billion from New York's reserves and another $229 million from a fund intended to cover health benefits for retired individuals. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has opposed the idea of raising taxes on the wealthiest population and large corporations, one of Mamdani's star proposals during his electoral campaign. In turn, the city's comptroller, Mark Levine, criticized the measure proposed by the mayor in a statement, stating that relying on an increase in these taxes and a significant reduction in reserves to address the budget gap «would have dire consequences.» Levine also emphasized that the city also needs more help from Albany — the capital of New York State — to correct the existing funding imbalance between the city and the state. The budget presented by the mayor must be approved before June 30.
