Taxation or Vacation? Mayor Mamdani’s $12B Plan to “Save” NYC by Taxing It to Death
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
New York NY, stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A new politician takes office, finds a massive budget hole, and decides the “innovative” solution is to squeeze the city’s top earners until they move to Florida.
Newly minted Mayor Zohran Mamdani kicked off his term this January by confirming what many feared—a plan to close a staggering $12.6 billion deficit by implementing the highest tax rates in the country. Critics are already calling it a “suicide mission” for the city’s economy, while Mamdani insists it’s just about “fairness.”
The “Staggering” Math: NYC’s $12 Billion Hole
According to City Comptroller Mark Levine, the Big Apple is staring down a fiscal abyss:
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FY 2026 Shortfall: $2.2 billion (ending June 30).
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FY 2027 Projected Gap: A massive $10.4 billion.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, blames “gross fiscal mismanagement” by the Adams and Cuomo administrations. His go-to example? A $600,000 AI chatbot that he calls “basically unusable.” While cutting $600k is a start, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $12,000,000,000 he actually needs.
The Plan: High Taxes and Higher Risks
To bridge the gap, Mamdani is doubling down on his campaign promises:
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The Millionaire Surcharge: A flat 2% tax on anyone earning over $1 million per year.
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Corporate Hike: Raising the city’s corporate tax rate to 11.5% (matching New Jersey).
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Income Tax Spike: Proposing to hike the city’s top income tax rate from 3.9% to 5.9%.
The Catch: Combined with New York State’s 10.9% top bracket, NYC’s wealthiest residents could soon face a total income tax rate of nearly 17%.
The “Miami Exodus”: Fact or Fiction?
When asked about “capital flight”—the very real phenomenon of billionaires fleeing to tax-friendly states—Mamdani brushed it off, noting that the millionaire population grew after the 2021 tax hikes.
However, the real estate data tells a different story:
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Miami Ascendant: By December 2025, Miami officially overtook NYC for the most $1 million+ home listings in America.
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The “Cuomo” Threat: Even former Governor Andrew Cuomo (whom Mamdani defeated) joked during the campaign that if the socialist won, “even I will move to Florida.”
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Wealth Mobility: In 2021 alone, $9.5 billion in household income flowed out of New York to Southeast Florida.
A Failed Strategy?
History shows that when you tax the rich to pay for “public excellence,” the rich often decide to experience that excellence elsewhere. As billionaires like Bill Ackman warn that high-net-worth residents are “making arrangements for the exits,” NYC faces a terrifying reality: the top 1% of taxpayers currently fund 40% of the city’s income tax revenue. If just a fraction of them leave, the $12 billion hole will only get deeper.
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Whichever way you slice it, the inequity between the billionaire class and the middleclass of America is becoming greater because of the donations those same billionaires make the GOP members of congress and the Orange dictator in the WhiteHouse, to lower taxes on the very wealthy. Most recently this achieved via Trump’s “Big Beautiful Billl” which robbed from the poor to give tax breaks to the ultra rich. At the same time trying to end subsidies for millions of Americans for their medical insurance. This is an abomination and any so-called journalist defending the position of poor-put-upon billionaires needs to locate the truth instead of finding it on “Truth Social”.
The top 1% of taxpayers paid roughly 42-45% of their income in federal taxes in the 1950s, compared to about 26-28% today.
The very wealthy can afford to pay more and tax laws should be countrywide so they can’t go run to the other end of the country, when it suits. Trickle down economics of the GOP and its fan boys are destroying democracy in pursuit of keeping the status quo.
Kevin, seriously?? HERE IS SOME ‘TRUTH’.
45+ percent of all Federal tax revenues are paid by the top 1% of taxpayers. The top 50% pay nearly the rest (97+ percent). The ‘rich’ are taxed enough, as are we all. The issue is the spending, the government’s never-ending need to BUY VOTES. What we NEED is not more taxes for the rich, or anyone in fact. We need term limits and a balanced budget amendment. There is the solution.
the Democrats are the party of Billionairs, you need to stop watching MSNBC and crack open a book and get a jobbtw they are also the part of Slavery
financial illeteracy is a major problem
economic illiteracy , is more like it
He could start by taxing all of the millenniums that reside in NYC but make believe they still live with their parents in NJ. Just force the landlords to disclose the names of the tenants. Easy money.
The corrupt slobs in govt don’t need anymore tax money. They need to stop taking care of deadbeats, illegals, and themselves!