Mayor Mamdani is expected to propose raising property taxes to balance the city budget on Tuesday, in the face of Gov. Hochul’s continued resistance to raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
The mayor is set to reveal his preliminary budget plans Tuesday afternoon at City Hall.
“We do have a big gap to fill, and he’s put a pretty extreme option on the table, which is a combination of raising property taxes and taking money from reserves, and relying on some pretty aggressive revenue projections to boot,” said City Comptroller Mark Levine, who was briefed on the proposal Tuesday morning.
On the campaign trail, Mamdani emphasized a need to reform the city’s property tax system, which economists say favors single-family homes, luxury condos and predominantly white neighborhoods overall, and places more weight on multi-family buildings and homeowners in mostly Black neighborhoods.
Mamdani’s budget director, Sherif Soliman, said last week the city planned to introduce property tax reform legislation “in a matter of weeks.”
“After years of fiscal mismanagement, we’re staring at a $5.4 billion budget gap — and two paths,” Mamdani said in a statement on social media ahead of the budget announcement. “One: Albany can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations and address the fiscal imbalance between our city and state. The other, a last resort: balance the budget on the backs of working people using the only tools at the City’s disposal.”
Just a day earlier, Gov. Hochul announced the state would give $1.5 billion to the city over the next two fiscal years — significantly decreasing the city’s budget gap projections from $7 billion to $5.4 billion.
Mamdani has blamed the budget gap largely on fiscal mismanagement and under-budgeting by the Adams administration.
He’s singled out the city’s rental assistance voucher program, CityFHEPS, as one particularly egregious area of over budgeting. Mamdani last week said he’s backtracking on his campaign promise to grow the program by seeking a settlement in a lawsuit against the expansion.
Hochul is facing re-election this year, and much of her Democratic base resides in New York City — a fact Mamdani’s team is keenly aware of.
“I’m not supportive of property tax increase. I don’t know that that’s necessary,” Hochul said at an unrelated Hudson Yards press conference. She added that she’s brought “unprecedented levels” of state cash to the city, including the extra money announced Monday.
