Socialist NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani will trigger mass exodus with tax hike plot to pay for $10B policies, experts warn

Yahoo

a day ago

Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's pie in the sky plan to pay for $10 billion in proposed freebies by hiking corporate taxes will trigger a mass exodus of New Yorkers to other states, experts warned.
Business leaders cautioned that the Queens state assemblyman's drastic tax hike for businesses and Big Apple millionaires to fund his progressive paradise blatantly ignores the hefty fees they are already shelling out – and will sink the city deeper into debt.
'This is being proposed at a time when people and their income are leaving New York State and New York City in particular,' a spokesperson for the Business Council of New York State told The Post Thursday.
'This would only add to that exodus and further erode our tax base.'
Mamdani – who has surged in the crowded Democratic field behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by promising to subsidize free buses and childcare, a rent freeze and five city-run food stores – aims to rake in $5.4 billion a year by jacking up corporate taxes from 7.25% to a steep 11.5%.
He is also eyeing another $4 billion by slapping a 2% flat tax on the wealthy.
'Mamdani is following a well worn political mantra that argues for more government spending as the solution to every problem and expecting that taxes on business and the wealthy can be infinitely expanded,' said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City.
'This may get someone elected, but once in office they bump into reality,' Wylde added. 'His tax proposals all require the approval of the governor and state legislature, which is unlikely even if they were modest increases. I am not sure how seriously he takes his own rhetoric.'
Mamdani, 33, would not only need to convince Gov. Kathy Hochul – who has consistently promised not to raise income taxes – to buy into his proposal, but also persuade Albany lawmakers to expand the city's debt limit in order to fund his eye-catching initiatives.
New York City's debt is currently projected to crater to $99.4 billion by July – and it's expected to climb sharply over the next two years, according to the city comptroller's office.
And the self-proclaimed socialist's plan to shower New Yorkers with freebies would gobble up more than the annual revenue he expects to make from his radical tax-the-rich blueprint.
Mamdani's campaign estimates that providing universal childcare for the city's pre-K base would cost between $5 billion and $7 billion, with free buses running the MTA roughly $900 million a year in annual revenue, Politico reported this week.
His new 'Department of Community Safety' – which would oversee mental-health crisis intervention, homelessness outreach and traffic ticketing – would rack up $450 million in new spending, with piloting the city-run food stores costing another $60 million, according to his campaign.
The mayoral hopeful is also proposing to more than triple the $30 billion allocated for housing in the capital budget, with the hopes of tripling the city's production of affordable homes in return, the outlet reported.
'He articulates his points very well, and they make sense. You understand exactly what he's saying,' former Gov. David Paterson told Politico.
'The problem is: Nobody told him there's no such thing as Santa Claus.'
Responding to the criticism of his costly plans, Mamdani campaign spokesman Andrew Epstein said, 'I know the wealthy have a lot of big feelings about paying a bit more in taxes but here are the facts: working and middle class families are already fleeing because they can't afford the cost of living.
'The rich leave less than any other income group and when they do, it's often to other high tax states. The 4.25% corporate tax increase Zohran proposes is still far less than Donald Trump's 14% cut. So too is the additional 2% tax on millionaires.'
The Mamdani rep added, 'The investments Zohran is proposing won't just improve quality of life for everyone but also will generate major economic benefits, and stop the billions of dollars in lost economic activity from parents leaving the workforce or decamping to other states.'