city in a landslide. And boy does he know that "To the victor
goes the spoils"; he is certainly living it up enjoying the
spoils. Right off the bat Mamdani is threatening to raise NYC
property taxes unless the Democrats in Albany hike taxes on
top earners and businesses. In other words, plunder the wealthy
for Mamdani or Hizzoner will plunder them and the middle
class to boot.
Mayor Mamdani's first budget for the Big Apple is a big budget;
$127 billion. He had the unmitigated gall to call his budget
"austere" (!). It's a $10 billion increase over this year's budget.
Never mind that New York, both the city and the state, are
swimming in tax revenue because of huge capital-gains
realizations and Wall Street bonuses, tax collections haven't
matched political spending and government employee benefits.
Mamdani stated that NYC is staring in the face of a $5 billion
deficit. But wait 'til you read the next paragraph in this post
to see some of the things on his wish list!
What does Mamdani desire? He wants to increase taxes on the
aforementioned top earners and businesses, using some of the swag
to do even more spending than that already being done by Gotham.
The increased spending would be for universal child care, free buses,
buying or starting grocery stores and have them run by the municipal
government (!!) so as to have low prices on food for NYC's lower-
income people (so what's happened with EBT cards?) and other
socialistic pipe dreams. As it currently is, the top 1% of New York
City's earners pay almost half of all the city's income taxes.
And Mamdani says they are not paying their fair share? What,
pray tell Mayor Mamdani, is this "fair share" that you allude to?
60%? 75%? 90%? All of it ??? You would, in effect, make it all
but illegal to make and keep substantial income revenues!
Mamdani self-righteously states "I believe the wealthiest individuals
and most profitable corporations should contribute a little more
so that everyone can live lives of dignity," This notion has long been
the rationale for raising taxes on not only the wealthy but the middle
class of NYC as well, and what is there to show for it in the quality
of life for the lower-income New Yorkers? They are still down in
the pocket, still struggling to pay their rent, to buy food, to pay
for medicine and medical care, and so on. And they're not living
in any significantly upgraded homes nor any new, more comfortable
homes. Besides, NYC rents are astronomical. So what gives?
Ah, but the new mayor has a solution for the housing troubles:
the creation of 200,000 new, "permanently affordable" housing
units (?!). Union-made, of course. What's he going to do,
implement another round of rent control? Some relevant facts:
rent control has a pretty dim history due to a lousy track record.
And who will be the landlords? The run-down areas of the city
have fallen into this sorry state because the property owners could
not afford necessary maintenance, with rent control making it
difficult to raise rents to get the necessary funds. Finally, the artificially
lower rents will have to rise sooner or later, and when they do they
find their efficient cost levels the rents will be greatly higher
than what most low-income renters can afford.
Meanwhile, top earners and businesses are starting to pack up and
move out of both the city and the state, leaving for states with more
sensible, affordable, and reasonable tax rates and fewer taxes to pay.
The self-proclaimed "progressives" they are leaving behind are
wondering why so many people are fleeing the New Yorks for
greener pastures and less financial confiscation. They just don't get it.
Their hero the mayor certainly doesn't grasp what is happening here.
His very obvious goal is to raise public pressure on Albany to stick it
to bigger earners: "We do not want to have to turn to such drastic
measures to balance our budget," Mamdani said of his threatened
property tax hike. Now pull the other one, Mister Mayor, it's got bells
on it! And balancing the city's budget is the least of Mamdani's
concerns. If he would exercise some spending discipline and restraint,
he wouldn't need to jack up any taxes in his city. Simply keeping
spending flat would eliminate 2026's budget deficit. But don't bet on
his doing that.
Remember when New York City went broke in the '70s, and begged
Washington for a handout to help? Mayor Mamdani might make
New York so broke that it would make the '70s look like boom times.
Such is socialism, and such are socialists.
MEM
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