The Washington Post’s editorial board mocked Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes on Wednesday, arguing that he admitted his city has a spending problem.
Mamdani proposed a $127 billion budget for the next fiscal year, which is larger than the budgets of 47 states, and would increase taxes for more than 3 million residents in the city. The editorial board said Mamdani was admitting that his constituents would have to pay the price in order to fund his socialist policies.
“The reality is that Americans may like the idea of ‘free’ stuff — it’s how socialists win elections — but they are less excited about having to pay for it. They’re even less excited when they live in a state that ranks at the very bottom of the Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index,” the board wrote. (RELATED: Trump Admin May Be Quietly Plotting To Blow Up Mamdani Campaign Cornerstone)
(Photo by Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)
During a press conference on Tuesday, Mamdani called on Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on the “ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations” to help the city’s budget, though Hochul rejected the idea and proposed that Mamdani expand his “laughable number” of spending cuts. Hochul is up for reelection in New York’s 2026 gubernatorial election.
“Mamdani claims his administration has found $1.7 billion to cut, but that’s a laughable number,” the Post wrote. “The reality is that Mamdani is trying to expand a city government that already does way too much. The city should provide basic services, such as law and order, but instead it pours billions into social spending like housing and health care.”
“No one in New York is ambitious enough to dramatically reshape city government, and residents either vote for class warfare or vote with their feet. A reckoning will have to come eventually. The question is how bad it gets before reality sets in,” the board continued.
As part of the budget plan, Mamdani is relying on a 9.5% increase in city property taxes to help close a projected $5.4 billion revenue shortfall throughout the next two upcoming fiscal years, according to Politico.
“This is something that we do not want to do and this is something that we are going to utilize every single option to ensure it does not come to pass,” Mamdani told reporters.
Mamdani campaigned on implementing government-run grocery stores and buses, raising taxes on “white neighborhoods,” creating a Department of Community Safety which would allow social workers to respond to non-violent emergency calls and establishing rent freezes. He did not explicitly answer how he planned to fund government-run buses during a Nov. 20 interview with PIX.
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