Mayor Mamdani launches push to tax the wealthy as he blames NYC $12 billion budget gap on Adams

Mayor Mamdani lambasted former Mayor Eric Adams for a “fiscal crisis” on Wednesday as he launched a public push on Gov. Hochul to raise taxes for the city’s richest residents and corporations and to send billions more NYC’s way.

The mayor is facing a possible $12.6 billion budget gap over two fiscal years, which the mayor described as the largest deficit since the Great Recession in 2008.

“Former Mayor Eric Adams handed the next administration a poisoned chalice,” Mamdani said at a City Hall press conference Wednesday afternoon. “… This is not just bad governance, it is negligence, and now the responsibility falls upon us to protect working New Yorkers from paying the price.”

To boost taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, though, Mamdani will need to win support in Albany, where he is expected to face resistance from Gov. Kathy Hochul. Facing re-election, Hochul has made it clear she’s against raising taxes on the wealthy, though she’s left the door slightly open to a corporate hike.

“I think there’s more money out there that, as they’re diving deeper into not just their expenses but their revenues, there will be more assistance there,” Hochul said Wednesday, noting the state received $17 billion in unexpected revenues from Wall Street bonuses.

“He’ll do what he needs to do,” Hochul added. “Mayors have their press events, that’s fine.”

The estimated budget gap doesn’t take into account extra revenues from Wall Street that are expected to shrink that gap. Mamdani, when asked about that, said regardless of the revenue picture, the budget deficit will need “structural solutions” to ensure the budget is balanced while also delivering on necessary services and social service programs for city dwellers.

Mamdani’s press conference comes after the city’s comptroller, Mark Levine, sounded the alarm on a $12.6 billion budget gap for this fiscal year and the next. The mayor said Wednesday that City Hall’s early estimates fall in line with Levine’s number.

Mamdani argued that the Adams administration severely under-budgeted by 50% or more the costs of services like cash assistance and homeless shelters.

Aside from balancing the budget, Mamdani also faces the challenge of following through on his campaign promises of universal childcare and other programs.

Pressed for details on how he’d balance the budget, the mayor said he wouldn’t “entertain” the idea of budget cuts but will examine every dollar in city spending to find “efficiencies.” He promised more details in the preliminary budget, due Feb. 17.

“We will not shrink from this moment,” he said. “We will not succumb to small ideas. We will meet this crisis with the bold solutions it demands. That means recalibrating the broken fiscal relationship between the state and the city, and it means that the time has come to tax the richest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations.”

The Citizens Budget Commission, which stands opposed to tax hikes, pushed back on Mamdani’s estimate, saying by their count the gap will be around $8 billion.

“So far, we have not heard about any systematic effort to get savings ideas from agencies,” CBC CEO Andrew Rein said in a statement. “The City should spend the current $120 billion efficiently on the right programs before asking New Yorkers for more money.”

Ex-Mayor Adams in response accused Mamdani in turn of “throwing tantrums and pointing fingers instead of admitting he misled the public” in a message to the Daily News.

“Mayor Mamdani promised a laundry list of “free” giveaways to buy votes, with no plan to pay for them,” he continued later on social media. “Now that the math doesn’t work, instead of owning the fact that he misled New Yorkers, he’s blaming me.”

And while the mayor blamed the past administration, as well as ex-Gov. Cuomo, for the situation, he didn’t criticize the City Council or Hochul. Neither did he mention President Trump, whose threats of pulling federal funding are also looming over the budget.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, attacked Mamdani in a statement, saying that unlike the former governor “hard work and fiscal discipline” are not words in “Mamdani’s vocabulary.”