Potential mayor’s threats to New York City worse than feared

Article content

A Florida trade group is using what it calls “the unacceptable risk” of a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty to entice New York City CEOs into moving their firms and families to the Sunshine State.

Article content

Smart marketing: Business leaders are already doing the Mamdani math by adding up the massive costs of his promised public spending on universal child care, transportation and other freebies.

Article content

Article content

As mayor, Mamdani will either raise New York’s already high taxes to pay for all these goodies, or his reckless spending will plunge the city into fiscal chaos, leading to draconian austerity measures like cuts to police and garbage collection.

Disastrous either way.

Aren’t there legal guardrails to limit what an irresponsible New York City mayor — even a crazed socialist one — can do?

For half a century, ever since Gotham’s financial debacle in 1975, New Yorkers have taken comfort in knowing that a state-run financial control board is in place to prevent the city from ever again plunging into financial chaos.

Article content

Article content

But that’s more a myth than a reality. The guardrails have turned into tissue paper under New York’s one-party, increasingly leftist rule.

In 1975, overspending and an economic slump put New York City on the brink of bankruptcy. Banks would no longer underwrite the city’s debt.

The state stepped in, creating the seven-member New York State Financial Control Board — made up of the NYC mayor, the governor, the state and city comptrollers and three additional members chosen by the governor — to right the ship.

Until 1986, this powerful board controlled the city’s budget, union contracts and borrowing, no matter who occupied city hall.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

Since then, the FCB has been in hibernation, but legally poised to reactivate if the city spends more than it takes in or fails to pay its debts — likely scenarios under a mayor Mamdani.

Article content

Here’s the hitch: Reactivating the FCB requires the consent of the state legislature.

Good luck with that.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and her powerful No. 2, state Sen. Michael Gianaris, both Democrats, have allied with the hard left for years. Both now endorse Mamdani.

Don’t count on them to defy Mamdani and put the city’s financial management in safer hands. Few Democratic politicians in the state are showing the backbone to speak a word against Mamdani even now, before he’s actually been elected.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

And don’t expect city council, almost entirely dominated by leftist loons, to resist Mamdani’s excessive spending.

Last month, council pushed current Mayor Eric Adams to accept a record-setting $116-billion budget, bloated with new services for illegal immigrants and a pilot program for universal child care starting at birth.

Article content

Is there a firewall against the huge tax hikes required to fund Mamdani’s utopian wish list? Depends on what type of taxes.

Mamdani says he plans to raise the city’s corporate tax rate to 11.5% to bring in $5 billion. He also wants to slap an additional 2% on the income tax rate paid by individuals earning more than $1 million a year, collecting another $4 billion.

Only the state legislature can impose those tax increases and Gov. Kathy Hochul says she won’t sign any such hikes into law — a vow that’s likely good until the next statewide election in November 2026.

But after that, New Yorkers could be in big trouble if a solidly blue state government approves new taxes to fund Mamdani’s wild ideas.

Article content

Property taxes are another matter and a looming threat. Get ready to pay up big time, whether or not you own your home.

A socialist mayor will go where the money is. Real estate taxes brought in $37 billion last year — nearly half of all city revenues — and the mayor and council largely control property tax levies.

New York City is exempt from the property tax cap imposed on most parts of the state. For Gothamites, state law only puts a lid on annual increases in assessed real estate values, limiting them to 6% a year for large properties and 8% for smaller ones.

That’s not enough protection against a cash-hungry, spendaholic mayor.

Property tax hikes impact not only building owners but residents of co-ops and condos — and many renters, too, when landlords pass the tax increase along. So much for Mamdani’s “affordability” blather.

Article content

Here’s the clincher: Mamdani is promising to increase assessments in what he calls “richer and whiter” neighbourhoods, claiming property valuations there haven’t kept up with the rising real estate market.

If you live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, get ready to be socked with higher taxes and possibly see your home’s resale value drop as a result.

In a one-party city and a nearly one-party state, there are few safeguards against the maniacal vision of Mamdani.

We have just one defence and it’s electing someone else.

— Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and founder of SAVENYC.

Article content