Ed Ra, New York State lawmaker and member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee Ranking, wonders whether newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tax plans could become a reality.
Although Mamdani’s sudden rise to power was spurred by grand promises to lower the cost of living through city supermarkets, universal child care, free buses and the like, many have expressed doubts that he could convince state leaders in Albany to raise taxes to achieve his goals.
However, according to New York State Assemblyman Ed Ra, the ranking member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which deals with tax policy, the conditions could be just right for Mamdani to realize his socialist utopia. The consequences, Ra said, will be catastrophic, not only for those living in the city, but for New Yorkers across the state.
“It’s no secret that we’ve had an emigration problem in New York State over the years,” Ra says. ‘The fact is that the top 1 percent already pays 41 percent of the income taxes in the state al. And the combined top rate for cities and states is already 14.776 percent. If we continue to lose taxpayers like this, it will have a huge impact. Not just on the tax base of the city itself, but on the state as a whole.”
‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’: RESEARCHER PREDICTS NYC BUSINESS OUTCOME IF ZOHRAN MAMDANI WINS
Governor Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., celebrates with New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, left, during an election rally at Forest Hills Stadium on October 26, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Ra said the rowdy Hochul the crowd faced at the “New York is Not for Sale” rally in Queens shortly before the election was a good illustration of the pressure she faces from the left to approve the election. Mamdani’s plan to introduce a 2 percent income tax on anyone making more than $1 million and raising the state’s top corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent.
After the crowd drowned repeatedly Hochul With chants of “tax the rich,” Mamdani eventually had to come to her rescue, grab her hand and escort her off stage.
Ra said Hochul faces the same pressure in Albany as he did in Queens.
“There is support in the Legislature and that part of the Democratic Party will certainly put pressure on the governor on this issue, which I think we saw quite loudly at the meeting about a week after Election Day,” he said.
“People are already talking about primaries with the governor, and most notable of course is her incumbent lieutenant governor, [Antonio Delgado]which, I think, supports all these types of policies,” Ra explains.
“As more progressive democratic socialist politics have emerged, this has certainly given impetus to members of the legislature who do not want to be the next to be eliminated in a primary, so they are becoming more supportive of these types of policies, just as we expect the governor might do if she is concerned about a primary challenger.”
He noted that despite previously expressing her opposition to raising taxes, Hochul may have already given herself a way out by saying she wouldn’t approve income tax increases, which, he said, “doesn’t mean she might not opt for some form of corporate tax increase or other forms of consumption taxes.”
‘TAX THE RICH!’: MAMDANI STEPS TO DEFEND HOCHUL AFTER SUPPORTERS HECKLE GOVERNOR AT NYC RALLY
New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul hold hands on stage as they attend a ‘New York is Not For Sale’ rally at Forest Hills Stadium, in the Queens borough of New York City, on October 26, 2025. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
Ra said several state tax rates for companies will expire soon, giving the Mamdani camp further opportunities to press for increases. Any of these tax increases, he said, will only further fuel the corporate exodus from New York.
“The state’s tax structure is very dependent on Wall Street, especially on bonuses and things like that, so if we continue to lose higher-earning individuals, it’s going to have an impact on the entire state,” he explained.
“We talk a lot about free buses, we talk about the grocery store and all this stuff. At the end of the day, the term should be taxpayer funded,” he said.
“Somebody’s paying for it, right? So whether it’s income tax increases, whether it’s other types of taxes that are being pursued by this administration through Albany, I think this is going to impact people’s costs one way or another.”
Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, during a hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Committee in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
That said, Ra said he believes conditions are ripe for another unthinkable in New York, a Republican governor. After months of intense speculation, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., officially launched a bid for New York governor as a Republican.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Although New York is widely seen as a deep blue stronghold, Ra said the backlash from the Mamdani moment could ensure that “we have a real chance to elect a Republican governor.”
“People see that Albany has overspent, overtaxed and been mismanaged for a long time under full Democratic control,” he said. “People are willing to change that and hopefully change the direction of New York state. So I think the conditions are very good for a Republican to take the governor’s mansion next year.”
