Amid a $5.4 Billion Budget Deficit, the Mayor of New York City Is Pushing Forward with a Proposal That Has Historically Yielded Terrible Results.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing a tough reality check. Just a few months into office, the new mayor’s dreams of free buses, free child care, and government-run grocery stores are running into the brick wall of New York City’s massive budget deficit. But when it comes to government food stores at least, the mayor is doubling down anyway.
The city currently faces a $5.4 billion budget gap, which Mamdani has largely blamed on former Mayor Eric Adams. In turn, Mamdani’s primary proposals for closing the gap are to either pressure New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators into raising taxes on the wealthiest New York City residents and corporations—the mayor’s preferred path—or enacting a 9.5 percent property tax in the Big Apple.
Gov. Hochul has poured cold water on the tax-the-rich route, while an across-the-board property tax increase has unsurprisingly received substantial backlash. The latter would also require the acquiescence of the New York City Council, but City Council Speaker Julie Menin has already dismissed the idea as a “nonstarter.”
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C. Jarrett Dieterle is a legal policy fellow for the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
