New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday called on the state to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to help address the city’s budget deficit. He warned that the alternative option for the city will be to increase property taxes.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling on the Empire State to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals to tackle the Big Apple’s budget deficit. He warns that the alternative would involve the city raising property taxes and dipping into its reserves.
Mamdani has issued a preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027 that entails an increase in property taxes, a prospect he describes as a “last resort.”
“Today I’m releasing the city’s preliminary budget. After years of fiscal mismanagement, we’re staring at a $5.4 billion budget hole — and two paths. One: Albany can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and most profitable corporations and address the budget imbalance between our city and the state. The other is a last resort: balance the budget on the backs of working people using the only tools the city has,” Mamdani noted Tuesday. after on X.
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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a Bloomberg Television interview at New York City Hall on Thursday, January 29, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
According to the city council, the municipality must give the green light for the city budgets New York Times.
“As mayor of New York City, I have a legal obligation to balance the budget. I will meet that obligation,” he said during his speech Tuesday.
The sun sets on the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building in New York City on July 28, 2025, as seen from Bayonne, NJ (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only source of revenue completely within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes. We would also be forced to plunder our reserves,” he said.
“This would essentially be a tax on working- and middle-class New Yorkers, who have an average income of $122,000,” said Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist who ran on a political agenda. platform who promised to tackle rental costs.
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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during an announcement about junk fees at the Susan and John Hess Family Theater at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, on Wednesday, January 21, 2026. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Mamdani said the “preliminary budget is the only path within our control,” but added that the city will only take that path if there is no other way to reach a solution. balanced budget.
