Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday proposed to raise property tax rates in New York City by nearly 10 percent, a measure he is casting as a “last resort” to be deployed if he cannot persuade Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on the wealthy.
The suggested 9.5 percent property tax increase would affect more than 3 million single-family homes, co-ops and condos and over 100,000 commercial buildings, Mr. Mamdani said as he delivered his preliminary spending plan.
The budget plan, Mr. Mamdani’s first since becoming mayor, totals $127 billion and would take effect July 1, following revisions and negotiations with the City Council. That is an increase from the current $122 billion spending plan.
Mr. Mamdani, the city’s newly elected democratic socialist mayor, said a tax increase is necessary to close a $5.4 billion fiscal gap that he has blamed on inaccurate budgeting from his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams. (Mr. Adams
has said he left Mr. Mamdani with over $8 billion in reserves.)
City budgets must, by law, be balanced.
Should Mr. Mamdani carry through on his threat to increase property taxes, the measure would raise an additional $14.8 billion over four years, according to budget documents. Property taxes are the only taxes mayors can control without approval from Albany, though the City Council would have to approve the increase.
