"Viewed historically, especially in the context of a total budget of $127 billion, the city's current $5.4 billion projected deficit-already down from the $12 billion announced a few weeks ago-looks less like a fiscal chasm and more like a pothole. Yet the demands of custom, when coupled with the young mayor's evident wish to project the financial sobriety signalled by his dark suits and sombre neckties, meant that the press corps-and their readers, viewers and listeners-were again treated to the latest production"
"In Mamdani's case, the threat was to raise the city's property taxes-which as the mayor noted is the only significant municipal revenue source not subject to the dictates of Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature-by 9.5 percent above the current level if Albany continues to balk at the mayor's preferred policy of a 2 percent increase in city income taxes for New Yorkers earning over $1 million a year and an increase in taxes on the city's most profitable corporations."
New York City faces a projected $5.4 billion deficit, reduced from an earlier $12 billion estimate, within a $127 billion total budget. Historical patterns show past leaders, including David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani, and Basil Paterson, confronting similar fiscal crises. The mayor warned of a 9.5 percent property tax increase—the only major municipal revenue not controlled by the state—if Albany rejects a proposed 2 percent city income tax rise on residents earning over $1 million and higher taxes on profitable corporations. The situation was presented with dramatic rhetoric and political theater despite the deficit's comparatively modest size.
Read at The Nation
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