CITY HALL, Manhattan (PIX11) — There is a warning from New York City’s money man about jobs in the city as lawmakers consider raising taxes on millionaires and corporations.
“Outside the single industry of healthcare, specifically home health aids, New York City’s job market has declined by 38,000 jobs, and looking ahead, the uncertainties are growing,” NYC Comptroller Mark Levine said Wednesday.
Levine laid out the challenges ahead for New Yorkers during testimony in front of the City Council. He estimates the city’s budget deficit is around $7 billion due mainly to the rising costs of education and housing assistance.
The estimate is worse than the $5 billion number Mayor Zohran Mamdani came up with. Mamdani has repeatedly said he’ll be forced to raise property taxes, hurting working-class New Yorkers, if state lawmakers don’t raise taxes on millionaires and corporations.
State Senators and Assembly Members, in what’s known as their “one-house bill,” agree and want to raise those taxes.
“On property taxes, I’ve been clear we should not be doing that,” Levine said. “But those taxes that Albany is considering in the one house bill, everything should be on the table, but I want to be cautious.”
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Taxing the rich is becoming increasingly popular, with just last week Siena Poll showing most New Yorkers 54% support it, mostly driven by residents of New York City. However, Governor Kathy Hochul continues to say taxes are not the answer.
“I have to look at it as we’re in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden,” Hochul told Politico during a budget forum. “We have to be smart about this. We can fund what we want to fund with what we’re taking in.”
Still, the nonpartisan New York City Independent Budget Office pushed back against that notion in testimony today.
“Yes Texas and Florida have been adding millionaires, but there were a lot of millionaires here,” the NYC IBO said. “Those that have left have been replaced by new millionaires. In general, it’s important to understand there are many reasons to live in New York City besides how they structure our tax rates.”
Late Wednesday, Moody’s lowered the NYC Government’s financial outlook from stable to negative, in another warning sign.
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