ALBANY – Lefty pro “tax the rich” lawmakers in Albany were feeling pretty poor Wednesday after the New York City Council released an alternative to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s budget — and it doesn’t rely on a tax increase.
The liberal pols — who already blew their own April 1 budget deadline — have been committed to filling the $5 billion gap in Mamdani’s spending plan with some sort of tax increase, most likely corporate taxes, The Post reported earlier this week.
But Mamdani and his cronies were dealt a blow Wednesday by Big Apple City Council Speaker Julie Menin, whose camp laid out a proposal that would close the gap by rejiggering spending and revenue estimates along with $2 billion in savings, thus negating the need for Albany to approve tax hikes.
Lefty pro “tax the rich” lawmakers in Albany were feeling pretty poor Wednesday after the New York City Council released an alternative to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s budget. Stephen Yang for NY Post“That’s a good thing,” state Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-Staten Island) told The Post of the council’s plan, claiming that tax increases aren’t needed to balance the city budget.
“I don’t think there’s a need to raise taxes.”
“People are complaining about wasteful spending under the prior administration. Well, what is being done about it?” Fall said.
Lawmakers left Albany for the week far from a deal on the state budget.
“Every municipality has a responsibility to manage its own finances before looking to the rest of the state for relief. Suburban and upstate taxpayers are already stretched thin, and they shouldn’t be expected to shoulder the burden of New York City’s fiscal challenges,” Long Island state Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Suffolk) told The Post.
“The city needs to identify efficiencies and make responsible choices to balance its books as they have reportedly done. It reinforces that raising taxes should only ever be a last resort,” Martinez, who grilled Mamdani on the topic earlier this year during a budget hearing in Albany, added.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has signaled in recent weeks that she would not chip in more state resources to the city than she’s committed already – $1.5 billion in addition to billions of dollars of new spending, such as on childcare.
“Now it’s up to the City Council,” Hochul said earlier this month.
Her budget director, Blake Washington, didn’t fully hail Menin’s proposal as a victory for his boss when asked by reporters Wednesday, but reiterated that Hochul continues to “hold the line” in rejecting an income or corporate tax increase.
Big Apple City Council Speaker Julie Menin laid out a proposal that would close the gap by rejiggering spending and revenue estimates along with $2 billion in savings, thus negating the need for Albany to approve tax hikes. Robert Miller for NY Post“I would just say that this is a necessary step in the process,” he said of the city council budget.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) acknowledged negotiations have “tangentially” involved conversations about taxes.
He said he hadn’t gone through the details of the city council proposal when asked by reporters Wednesday, but revealed that he isn’t totally buying Mamdani’s framing of his now $5 billion budget gap as an unprecedented crisis.
“You need to just be sure that these numbers are real,” Heastie says he told Mamdani after he made his budget pitch to Albany.
“We’re still trying to flush out what is the real number,” asked Wednesday about Mamdani’s income and corporate tax push.
To help reap more dough, Hochul has proposed an extension of the 7.25% statewide corporate tax on businesses making more than $5 million for three years. Both the state Assembly and Senate have called for increasing the rate as they have regularly included tax hike proposals in their one-house budget plans in recent years.
That’s why some lawmakers say the council’s move has less bearing over what Albany will do.
“One budget approach doesn’t invalidate another. The question isn’t whether you can close a gap without new revenue, it’s whether you can close that gap while doing enough to invest in affordability, housing, and economic opportunity,” state Assemblyman Brian Cunningham (D-Brooklyn) said.
On the campaign trail, Mamdani called for hiking the corporate tax to 11.25%, but in Albany this year, he is pushing for smaller hikes of the city’s rate.
Lawmakers will return to Albany next week after passing a short-term extension of current state funding before departing for Passover on Tuesday.
