By Josephine Stratman
New York Daily News
(TNS)<\/p>\n
NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014 Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to propose raising property taxes to balance the city budget on Tuesday, in the face of Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s continued resistance to raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.<\/p>\n
The mayor is set to reveal his preliminary budget plans Tuesday afternoon at\u00a0City Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a big gap to fill, and he\u2019s put a pretty extreme option on the table, which is a combination of raising property taxes and taking money from reserves, and relying on some pretty aggressive revenue projections to boot,\u201d said City Comptroller\u00a0Mark Levine, who was briefed on the proposal Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
On the campaign trail, Mamdani emphasized a need to reform the city\u2019s property tax system, which economists say favors single-family homes, luxury condos and predominantly white neighborhoods overall, and places more weight on multi-family buildings and homeowners in mostly Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s budget director,\u00a0Sherif Soliman, said last week the city planned to introduce property tax reform legislation \u201cin a matter of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years of fiscal mismanagement, we\u2019re staring at a $5.4 billion budget gap\u2014and two paths,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement on social media ahead of the budget announcement. \u201cOne:\u00a0Albany\u00a0can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations and address the fiscal imbalance between our city and state. The other, a last resort: balance the budget on the backs of working people using the only tools at the City\u2019s disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a day earlier,\u00a0Gov. Hochul\u00a0announced the state would give $1.5 billion to the city over the next two fiscal years\u2014significantly decreasing the city\u2019s budget gap projections from $7 billion to $5.4 billion.<\/p>\n
Mamdani has blamed the budget gap largely on fiscal mismanagement and under-budgeting by the\u00a0Adams administration.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s singled out the city\u2019s rental assistance voucher program, CityFHEPS, as one particularly egregious area of over budgeting. Mamdani last week said he\u2019s backtracking on his campaign promise to grow the program by seeking a settlement in a lawsuit against the expansion.<\/p>\n
Hochul is facing re-election this year, and much of her Democratic base resides in\u00a0New York City\u2014a fact Mamdani\u2019s team is keenly aware of.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not supportive of property tax increase. I don\u2019t know that that\u2019s necessary,\u201d Hochul said at an unrelated Hudson Yards press conference. She added that she\u2019s brought \u201cunprecedented levels\u201d of state cash to the city, including the extra money announced Monday.<\/p>\n
Photo caption:\u00a0New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks Jan. 8, 2026, during a press conference on New York City\u2019s universal childcare plan as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (left) watches.<\/p>\n
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