{"id":145258,"date":"2026-02-25T21:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145258\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T21:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:21:11","slug":"powerful-unions-back-tax-the-rich-campaign-that-squeezes-other-new-yorkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145258\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful unions back ‘tax the rich’ campaign that squeezes other New Yorkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Empire State\u2019s most powerful unions \u2014 including the United Federation of Teachers \u2014 are backing a \u201ctax the rich\u201d campaign that includes a proposal taking a bigger bite out of New Yorkers<\/a> who are not millionaires.<\/p>\n

The unions representing government\u00a0workers \u2014 listed as supporting the Democratic Socialists of America\u2019s \u201cTax the Rich\u201d rally<\/a> in Albany Wednesday \u2014 stand to benefit from the billions of\u00a0dollars\u00a0in revenues\u00a0raised by the potential massive tax hikes.<\/p>\n

The DSA is pushing one piece of legislation, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani championed as a state assemblyman, that would not just hit millionaires as claimed \u2014 but would also raise state income taxes by 10% on couples making $500,000.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers and protesters marching in the \u201cAlbany Takeover\u201d to demand a tax hike for rich New Yorkers on Feb. 25, 2026. Cindy Schultz for NY Post<\/p>\n

The United Federation of Teachers and other powerful New York unions have backed the \u201ctax the rich\u201d push from the DSA. Cindy Schultz for NY Post<\/p>\n

Backers of the pro-tax campaign include the \u201cStrong Economy for All Coalition,\u201d with members such as the powerful UFT and affiliated New York State United Teachers unions, 1199 SEIU representing health care workers, the Communication Workers of America and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.<\/p>\n

Other groups backing the movement include: New Yorkers United for Child Care; the United Auto Workers Local 9A;\u00a0the Professional Staff Congress representing CUNY professors; the NYS Nurses\u2019 Association; the left-wing Working Families Party; the Federal Unionists Network; the Alliance for Quality Education; New Yorkers United for Child Care and housing activists including the NYS Tenant Bloc and Met Council, among others.<\/p>\n

But state Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar claimed union leaders may be out of step with their membership, noting nearly half of city voters in labor-heavy districts voted against tax-happy Mamdani in last fall\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Phara Souffrant \u2014 a Democratic Socialists of America member \u2014 taking the stage to speak at the \u201cAlbany Takeover\u201d event. Cindy Schultz for NY Post<\/p>\n

New York City Councilman Chi Oss\u00e9 speaking at the rally. Cindy Schultz for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cCouples making $500,000 in New York are not considered rich people. Affordability comes from not raising taxes, but lowering costs,\u201d Kassar said.<\/p>\n

He said many unionized government workers believe bloated government spending could be trimmed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRaising taxes will spur an exodus from New York and eventually you\u2019ll run out of people and destroy the tax base that funds the services,\u201d Kassar said.<\/p>\n

Spearheading the coalition are Mamdani\u2019s pals at the New York City chapter of the DSA, which even has a website\u00a0taxtherichny.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bill pushed by the group would also increase the top rate by 220% to 24% on super-rich joint filers making more than $25 million.<\/p>\n

While Mamdani didn\u2019t attend the rally, he told reporters he was supportive of the tax hike campaign.<\/a> A group founded by supporters of the mayor, Our Time for An Affordable NYC, is listed as part of campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Empire State\u2019s most powerful unions \u2014 including the United Federation of Teachers \u2014 are backing a \u201ctax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4241,1091,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,2780,13038,4338,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-145258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany","9":"tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-taxes","18":"tag-teachers-union","19":"tag-united-federation-of-teachers","20":"tag-us-news","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}