By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards wants the state to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations in order to meet the city\u2019s budget deficit and stave off what he says would be catastrophic consequences for the borough caused by the property tax increase threatened by the mayor. <\/p>\n
Richards made his thoughts clear to state leaders when he trekked up to Albany on Tuesday for what he described as a Queens-centric \u201cTin Cup Day.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said the impetus for the visit was to push back against property tax increases, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani floated as a \u201clast resort\u201d fix for the city\u2019s budget gap. To prevent the mayor from having to fall back on the plan, Richards demanded lawmakers give more state aid to the city and to Queens. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure Queens is on strong footing,\u201d he told the Eagle the day after his trip north. \u201cWe can continue to invest in our parks and our schools in a meaningful way, and our cultural institutions and our hospitals in particular so that we don’t lose footing over the next four years.\u201d <\/p>\n
Additionally, Richards said he was \u201cfine with\u201d the millionaires\u2019 tax pitched by Mamdani and his progressive allies, as well as tax increases on the state\u2019s wealthiest corporations. Unlike the proposal\u2019s critics, the BP said he wasn\u2019t worried a tax bump would force wealthy New Yorkers or corporations to flee the Empire State. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe effective rate is not going to squeeze them out of New York City,\u201d Richards said. \u201cWhere are you going? To Kansas?\u201d <\/p>\n
In January, Mamdani said the only answers to fill the city\u2019s budget deficit without cutting services were to institute taxes on the state\u2019s wealthiest people and corporations, and for the state to overhaul how much it gives the city in return for the substantial revenue the city sends up the Hudson River. <\/p>\n
He said that if the state does not come through, he would have no choice but to raise property taxes by nine percent, an option quickly condemned by Queens officials, including Richards. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe threat of property taxes certainly has created anxiety amongst Queens communities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But while Richards is in defiant opposition to a property tax increase, he felt the only way to prevent it was to pitch an alternative to lawmakers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt it was incumbent upon us, especially being that we were the first voice to really come out and say no to the property tax increase, to also come up with a solution,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Richards spoke to leaders in the state legislature, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and he said he advocated for the needs of the borough amid budget negotiations. <\/p>\n
Richards sits in a unique position. He is both a partner to Mamdani, but also a close ally to Governor Kathy Hochul, who has been hesitant to meet Mamdani on his calls for tax increases or additional state funding. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the governor is committed,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think the leadership\u2026Carl Heastie\u2026and Senator Cousins, they understand the importance of helping New York City grow and continue to evolve.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said he also spoke with members of Queens\u2019 state delegation about inflation and utility costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt relatively good coming back that Albany is taking this extremely seriously,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach Queens Borough President Donovan Richards wants the state to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-172248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172248","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=172248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}