With a city gap near $9 billion looming, DSA-aligned lawmakers say the mayor’s campaign help for the governor should buy a firm commitment on taxing the rich.
NEW YORK, New York (Mamdani Post) – Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the closing days of the governor’s race on the road with Kathy Hochul, and his own allies want to know what the city got in exchange.
The question from Brooklyn
According to La Voce di New York’s report from October 26, Mamdani declined to press Hochul for higher taxes on the wealthy in return for his support. State Senator Julia Salazar of Brooklyn told Politico that it would be reasonable for the mayor to seek “clear commitments from the governor,” including new taxes on the rich.
Asked about leverage, Mamdani said he was glad the relationship would continue and pointed to what he called the tangible things the governor had delivered. He credited her with helping the city climb out of a $12 billion deficit and with backing universal childcare. That last point is real: Hochul pledged to do “whatever it takes” to fund the program, and the governor joined him recently to announce the 2-K expansion.
There is a turnout argument too. La Voce reports that more than 165,000 voters checked in during the opening weekend of early voting, more than the total for the mayoral election last year, and the outlet attributes part of that to Mamdani’s appearances with the governor. If the mayor’s presence moved voters, then he brought something of value to the table, and it is fair to ask what he asked for in return.
The budget math the mayor cannot ignore
La Voce reports that City Comptroller Mark Levine puts next year’s projected city budget gap at nearly $9 billion. New York Focus laid out the longer horizon in June: the city’s own projections, counting new state aid, show gaps of $7.1 billion in fiscal 2028, $9.1 billion in 2029 and $9.8 billion in 2030. The outlet also cited the Citizens Budget Commission as finding that only $780 million of the state’s $2.4 billion rescue package recurs after 2027.
Put plainly, the help the city won this year was mostly one-time money. Child care, free buses, a rent freeze and a functioning public hospital system are recurring commitments. Paying for recurring commitments with one-time aid is how cities end up announcing cuts.
Where Hochul stands
The governor has consistently opposed raising income or corporate taxes, New York Focus reports, and her office declined to speculate about next year’s budget. She told Politico that Mamdani should “look hard at spending.” In January, NY1 reported that Hochul downplayed his request for higher taxes, and she has not joined his call for taxes on the city’s richest residents, according to La Voce.
The mayor’s argument is that cooperation produces results, and it has. Mamdani endorsed Hochul early, as WTOP reported in February, and he campaigned with her through the final weekend. City & State described the last day of early voting as a joint appearance with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at an Astoria sports bar. The same report has the Republican nominee, Bruce Blakeman, campaigning upstate and citing the state’s high taxes as his complaint, which means the loudest tax argument of the closing weekend came from the right.
Why 2027 is the window
The case for pressing now is timing. New York Focus reports that supporters of higher taxes argue that a non-election year gives lawmakers more room, since the major recent state tax increases all came in odd-numbered years. Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the city’s Democratic Socialists, told the outlet he wants a tax on the rich and corporations next session. The city’s own wish list in Albany this year included a corporate tax increase, higher income taxes, a levy on all-cash real estate sales, and a smaller tax credit for high-income business owners, and any of them could return.
There are cautions on the other side. State Senator Andrew Gounardes, who chairs the budget and revenue committee, was described as skeptical of another bailout and warned that next year might become more difficult. A governor who has consistently opposed income and corporate tax increases will not reverse herself because the mayor asks politely.
Our view: leverage unspent is leverage lost
The governor’s race was decided at the ballot box on November 3, but the question of what the mayor’s support bought does not depend on the margin. Mamdani is right that a good relationship with Albany matters; a city cannot tax itself into a free-standing economy, and he needs the state’s consent. But a relationship that yields rescue packages without a revenue source is a treadmill. Each year the city has to ask again, and each year the governor can say no to the real fix.
The people who should be asked to pay are not mysterious. They are the households and corporations that have done best in the city’s economy and have faced the lightest demands from the state. The practical task for the mayor’s allies, in the legislature and in the movement outside it, is to build the 2027 campaign now, make the child care funding gap the centerpiece, and get a public answer from Hochul before the January budget proposal arrives. Child care teachers, nurses, bus drivers and school aides are the people whose paychecks and services depend on the outcome, and organized labor should be in that campaign from the first day.
Readers who want a lighter take on the same cast of characters can find one at Bohiney Magazine, while the arithmetic above is no joke.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/