Among the many sins former Mayor Eric Adams must answer for is leaving his successor, Zohran Mamdani, a colossal budget deficit of roughly $12 billion this fiscal year and next.
Earlier this week, Mamdani released a revised financial plan where he asserted that closing the deficit would be possible in only two ways.
Since increasing tax rates for high earners is a nonstarter for Gov. Hochul, the mayor offered an alternative. Raise the city’s real property tax rate by about 9.5%, which requires only the approval of the City Council.
But he got backlash for this too. Council Speaker Julie Menin and Finance Committee Chair Linda Lee promptly poured cold water on Mamdani’s property tax ploy. In an interview, Lee noted that the property tax increase “would have a negative effect on a lot of homeowners” in her district in eastern Queens and others. Not only that, the proposal would exacerbate the fiscal problems of rent-stabilized housing, even before Mamdani’s proposed freeze on rents.
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Eric Kober is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He retired in 2017 as director of housing, economic and infrastructure planning at the New York City Department of City Planning. Follow him on Twitter here.
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