{"id":205929,"date":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205929\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","slug":"editorial-theres-no-way-to-tax-and-spend-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205929\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | There\u2019s no way to tax-and-spend in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

In about 10 weeks, New York City will have a budget<\/a>. That much is certain because the mayor and City Council are legally required to have one finished by June 30.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t certain is how that budget will stop the river of red ink pouring out of City Hall. The city is in a $5.7 billion deficit, and reducing that number to zero in 10 weeks is especially challenging this year given that Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to raise taxes on somebody, anybody, to spend more<\/a> \u2014 despite the fierce opposition of two of his biggest political partners, Gov. Kathy Hochul and City Council Speaker Julie Menin.<\/p>\n

Hochul has shown signs of giving in a little to Mamdani\u2019s tax demand, introducing a pied-a-terre tax on non-New York City residents who own homes worth $5 million or more.<\/a> It\u2019s an ultra-specific tax increase on ultra-wealthy absentee property owners\u00a0 \u2014 but should it come to fruition, it would only generate $500 million in new income. Do the math, and it\u2019s not even close to filling the gap.<\/p>\n

Mamdani still holds out hope Hochul and the state Legislature will go even further and raise income taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, something the governor has repeatedly refused to do amid her re-election campaign. If she holds true to her word, that\u2019s not going to happen whenever Albany gets around to passing their three-weeks-overdue-and-counting budget.<\/a><\/p>\n

The dreaded \u201cPlan B\u201d for Mamdani is a 9.5% tax increase on all New York City property owners. Menin, like Hochul, repeatedly said such an increase was a \u201cnonstarter\u201d in budget negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s three good reasons why Mamdani is facing such strong resistance to his tax increase demands: The economy, the economy, and the economy.\n<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s economy, while strong because of Wall Street\u2019s resilience, is mired in a horrific affordability crisis, and people are leaving for more affordable pastures. The Citizens Budget Commission released a report Monday<\/a> showing that $68 billion in income relocated from the Big Apple to the suburbs, Florida and Texas between 2019 and 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That number represents tens of thousands of people who finally had it with the higher costs for rent, food and mere existence in New York City, and headed for the exits. That number represents a steady, escalating erosion of the middle-class tax base that sustains this city and its services. It\u2019s a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

If this keeps up, and new taxes motivate more people and businesses to leave New York, we will replay the fiscal crisis of the 1970s<\/a> \u2014\u00a0a total collapse of the middle-class tax base, followed quickly by the housing market, the job market, and ultimately, city government itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one is suggesting that Mamdani and Menin swing the meat ax at the city\u2019s budget and reduce vital services to nothing in the name of the balanced budget they are required to achieve. We believe a $127 billion spending plan for New York ought to be large enough to satisfy the debt, and preserve police, fire, education, aging and other services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s time for City Hall to get real about the big picture. We\u2019re not going to tax-and-spend our way out of this mess \u2014 not just because we don\u2019t want to, but because we literally can\u2019t afford to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In about 10 weeks, New York City will have a budget. That much is certain because the mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64436,49446,81640,81641,19077,426,81642,9,47790,51149,56,63,81643,65,64,78949,81644,67695,81645,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-205929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-budget-negotiations","9":"tag-city-finances","10":"tag-cost-of-living-nyc","11":"tag-fiscal-policy-nyc","12":"tag-julie-menin","13":"tag-kathy-hochul","14":"tag-middle-class-exodus","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city-budget","17":"tag-new-york-economy","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nyc-deficit","21":"tag-nyc-headlines","22":"tag-nyc-news","23":"tag-pied-u00e0-terre-tax","24":"tag-property-taxes-nyc","25":"tag-tax-increases","26":"tag-urban-economic-crisis","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205929","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=205929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}