His tax promise aged about as well as Uncle Sam’s complexion.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign vow to only ever raise taxes on the city’s uber-wealthy came back to haunt him online Thursday — after he threatened New Yorkers with a nearly 10% hike in property taxes.
Hizzoner repeatedly made the vow on the campaign trail last year— including in viral social media videos — telling voters that he would only push Albany to raise taxes on people pulling in the most money each year in the Big Apple.
“This didn’t age good,” one commenter fumed in the comments section of a widely-shared “Subway Takes” video in which Mamdani made the promise in June.
“I don’t want to pay more taxes,” Kareem Rahma, the host of “Subway Takes,” an internet talk show, tells Mamdani in the footage.
“Do you make more than $1 million or more a year?” Mamdani jokes with the host as he shakes his head no.
“Then your taxes are not going up. The only taxes that we are proposing are on the 1% of New Yorkers who make $1 million or more a year,” he says in the video, which has raked in 1.1 million likes on Instagram.
But after Mamdani threatened New Yorkers this week with a 9.5% property tax hike, the video started making the rounds again.
“This did not age well … Property taxes going up for all. Good job NY,” one user said.
Another commenter posted a meme declaring, “This was all a dream.”
Mamdani threatened to raise property taxes by 9.5% if Albany doesn’t raise taxes on the wealthy to fund his city budget. Matthew McDermott for NY PostOn Tuesday, the Democratic socialist mayor unveiled his record $127 billion preliminary budget proposal, and announced the eye-popping 9.5% proposed property tax hike on New Yorkers.
Mamdani claimed the tax hike would be a “last resort” to close the city’s $5.4 billion budget gap — unless Albany and Gov. Kathy Hochul gives him the income tax hike he wants on millionaires.
Housing industry officials have since warned that Mamdani’s potential property tax hikes amount to a declaration of “war” against homeowners, and would inevitably lead to higher rents for New Yorkers.
