{"id":202432,"date":"2026-04-19T09:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202432\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:24:07","slug":"mamdani-hochuls-proposed-tax-on-the-rich-to-address-budget-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202432\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani, Hochul’s Proposed Tax on the Rich to Address Budget Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is following through on one of his most divisive campaign promises: tax the rich.<\/p>\n

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Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a new pied-\u00e0-terre tax proposal<\/a> on Wednesday. The tax, which requires legislative approval, would affect residents who own a secondary property in New York City valued at over $5 million but live elsewhere. It’s the first of its kind for New York state.<\/p>\n

The proposal drew swift ire from some members of the upper echelon<\/a>, including President Donald Trump<\/a>. He, alongside other billionaires like Citadel CEO Ken Griffin<\/a>, could be directly affected by the tax. Griffin purchased a Midtown penthouse for $238 million in 2019, while Trump owns properties in New York.<\/p>\n

“Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York! It has no chance! The United States of America should not contribute to its failure,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Mayor’s Office of New York City said it expects the policy to generate $500 million in annual revenue.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we know so far.<\/p>\n

Why are Mamdani and Hochul taxing the rich?<\/p>\n

The Mayor’s Office of New York City said the tax will address the city’s multi-billion-dollar budget gap.<\/p>\n

In January, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine said the city is facing a $2.2 billion budget shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year. He projected a $10.4 billion gap for the 2027 fiscal year.<\/p>\n

“This is the first time since the Great Recession that the City faces a budget shortfall of this magnitude this late in the fiscal year, presenting serious challenges for the City’s budget,” the comptroller’s office said in a press release.<\/p>\n

The comptroller’s office said the city’s economic outlook was not the reason for the budget gap. Rather, it blamed former New York City Mayor Eric Adams<\/a>‘ administration. Specifically, spending levels that exceeded revenue and a failure to properly budget for known and recurring expenses.<\/p>\n

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urged city officials to address the budget in March.<\/p>\n

“The city should take steps to balance its budget without depleting reserves during a projected period of economic growth, which would signal fiscal stress and leave it less prepared for when a rainy day arrives,” DiNapoli said in a press release.<\/p>\n

The offices of Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for a comment.<\/p>\n

Where will the money go?<\/p>\n

The proposed tax is projected to generate $500 million in revenue that will be diverted to city services.<\/p>\n

During a press conference on Friday, Mamdani said the money will be used to fund “essential city services like free child care, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.”<\/p>\n

The Hochul Administration said on its website that “as New York City faces a significant budget gap, the Governor’s proposal will generate much needed revenue for the city without impacting every day New Yorkers.”<\/p>\n

Lawmakers make the call<\/p>\n

The proposed tax would need to be approved by both the New York State Assembly and the State Senate before it can go into effect.<\/p>\n

The measure is being negotiated as part of the broader state budget process, where it has emerged as a potential compromise to help close New York City’s multibillion-dollar deficit, which has been delayed.<\/p>\n

One of the major questions that lawmakers will discuss is whether it will be a bracketed or flat tax. The New York Times reported that one proposal under discussion would set tiered tax rates: one rate for pieds-\u00e0-terre valued between $5 million and $15 million, a higher rate for those valued between $15 million and $25 million, and an even higher rate for those valued at $25 million or more.<\/p>\n

The state has not yet explained how it would assess a home’s value<\/a>, determine whether it is a primary residence, or calculate how much owners would owe.<\/p>\n

While explicit second-home taxes are rare in the US, some states already tax them more heavily through indirect means, like South Carolina, which assesses primary residences at a 4% rate and non-owner-occupied properties, including second homes, at 6%. And in cities like Boston, homeowners may qualify for a residential exemption on their primary residences.<\/p>\n

What makes this proposal distinct is that it would impose a direct, targeted surcharge on high-value, non-resident properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is following through on one of his most divisive campaign promises: tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[80213,5160,80214,51301,262,10447,80215,1445,9,24,56,63,65,64,973,80216,8812,3867,856,11467],"class_list":{"0":"post-202432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-address-budget-gap","9":"tag-administration","10":"tag-annual-revenue","11":"tag-budget-shortfall","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-comptroller","14":"tag-fiscal-year","15":"tag-mamdani","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nyc-headlines","21":"tag-nyc-news","22":"tag-office","23":"tag-primary-residence","24":"tag-property","25":"tag-proposal","26":"tag-state-senate","27":"tag-tax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202432","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=202432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}