Mayor Zohran Mamdani told state lawmakers on Wednesday that raising the Big Apple’s already nation-leading taxes on the wealthy is the only way to dig out of the city’s massive – and disputed – $12 billion budget gap hole.

His comments were the latest signal Hizzoner is dead set on raising taxes on millionaires even after Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to fund his universal childcare program — and despite all signs indicating the city’s budget deficit isn’t as bad as his administration has claimed.

Mamdani formally called on the state Legislature to raise income taxes on people making more than $1 million by 2% during his first “Tin Cup Day” in Albany – the annual ritual where local pols figuratively rattle their cups for funding in the next budget.

“The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes,” the 34-year-old mayor said.

“That 2% tax alone would resolve nearly half of our budget deficit. I will continue to advocate for these policies not only because they offer the most direct route out of this budget crisis, but because they will also transform what is possible in our state.”

The fresh-faced socialist’s proposal would hike Big Apple millionaires’ local tax rate to 5.86%. 

When combined with state income taxes, New York City’s wealthiest millionaires and billionaires would pay a 16.76% effective marginal tax rate. The levy would be on top of a 37% federal income tax rate for top earners.

The city’s top earners currently pay an effective 14.76% tax rate, more than the wealthiest residents of California – which has the highest marginal rate of any state at 13.3%, according to Tax Foundation data. 

Denizens of Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and Boston, whether rich or poor, don’t pay additional city income taxes.

Mamdani’s proposed hike would only stick it to the well-to-do in the Big Apple, sparing the rest of the Empire State from his “tax the rich” dream, the mayor emphasized when quizzed by lawmakers.

Mamdani had campaigned on soaking the rich to help pay for his $10 billion, freebie-filled agenda, including universal childcare and free buses. 

But the lefty mayor’s utopian vision seemingly faced a stumbling block as City Comptroller Mark Levine, the city’s budget watchdog, recently warned of a looming budget deficit totaling north of $12 billion.

Without skipping a step, Mamdani took to the bully pulpit in January to aggressively assert that the debt showed the need to tax the rich – an ask made in defiance of Hochul’s repeated reluctance to do so. 

Many insiders were skeptical of Mamdani’s gloom-and-doom forecast, arguing he was manufacturing a crisis. They pointed out that the projection conveniently left out hefty Wall Street bonuses that could significantly close the yawning gap.

And, sure enough, by the time Mamdani came to testify in Albany he told lawmakers his team shrunk the gap by $5 billion. 

The about-face quickly rankled those in Hochul’s camp who were already unhappy with Mamdani’s tax agitating, one city official said.

“This is completely irresponsible for the mayor and comptroller to put out to create a panic when there is no need,” the official said.

“How did you find $5 billion in two weeks? You put this out without Wall Street bonuses. How could you come out with this irresponsible budget thing and know it’s a sham? Hochul’s people are furious at the mayor and the comptroller for putting out those sham numbers.”

Mamdani’s fuzzy math arguably grew fuzzier as Mamdani’s budget director Sherif Soliman provided a breakdown of how officials conjured the $5 billion figure.

Roughly $3 billion came from increased revenues, with an additional $1 billion from cost-cutting savings and another $1 billion from the city’s reserves, Soliman said.

The budget chief also spilled that the city is projecting combined $7.2 billion in increased revenue over the next two years, but noticeably didn’t mention what costs are expected to go up – leaving even more open questions about the fiscal hole’s actual size.

Another question mark came from Mamdani’s claim that his tax hike would wipe out half the now-expected deficit. 

The hike would raise roughly $1.5 billion a year, based on a recent city comptroller’s revenue report. Still, the city appears to face a significant looming deficit that must be balanced over the next two years, said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission watchdog group. 

He disagreed with Mamdani, however, on whether raising taxes is the prudent path.

“We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem,” he said.

Mamdani defended his scaremongering over the $12 billion estimate, arguing that better-than-expected revenue from end-of-year Wall Street bonuses had been a “rumor” when he raised alarms.

“There were reports that things would be better than expected, but we can’t budget on the basis of a rumor,” he told reporters.

“This gap of $7 billion is one that has to be addressed through structural means, and it is one that we believe can be addressed not only by increasing taxes on the wealthiest, whether it be New Yorkers or making $1 million or more a year, or the most profitable corporations, but also by reorienting the city’s relationship to the state.”

The democratic socialist also continued his bellyaching over the city generating 54.5% of revenue for the state, yet receiving only 40.5% back.

His attempt to convince lawmakers to reshift the revenue sharing balance didn’t go over well even among his own party, with Assemblyman Patrick Burke (D-Buffalo) calling it “problematic.”

State Sen. Rob Rolison (R-Dutchess County), the former mayor of Poughkeepsie, was one of several lawmakers who noted Mamdani’s logic could be used to harm less-affluent city boroughs.

“If the majority of the taxes in New York City are generated in Manhattan, does that mean that Manhattan should get more of the city budget? It’s like the same thing, right?” he said.

Mamdani’s latest pressure push comes after Hochul as embraced a major plank of Mamdani’s socialist vision: universal childcare.

Her proposed 2027 budget includes $4.5 billion – of which $1.7 billion is new spending – for new kids initiatives across the state, including a “2-Care” program that would provide free childcare for all 2-year-olds in the Big Apple.

– Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick