Mamdani’s heist on Hochul and New York’s middle class

Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared war on the city’s middle class Tuesday, insisting that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to raise personal taxes on the rich and boost corporate taxes leaves him “no choice” except to hike city property taxes nearly 10%.

We told you so, gov — that Mamdani would stab you in the back at the first chance, and he did.

She’s given him his child-care program, and $1.5 billion for the city budget gap; he repays her with blatant political extortion

Plus: So much for his promise to reform property taxes.

And so what if the hike would also lead to big rent increases, the reverse of his campaign promises?

He’d also draw down the city “rainy day” reserve, which is supposed to be for emergencies, when then only “crisis” is a lack of cash to chase his socialist dreams.

“We do not want to have to turn to such drastic measures to balance our budget,” the mayor announced as he released his preliminary budget, “but, faced with no other choice, we will be forced to.”

“Forced to” because he wants to boost city outlays by 10%, $11 billion, to $127 billion total. He’s not being forced. He’s being greedy and irresponsible.

Of course, the other way to balance the budget doesn’t involve raising anybody’s taxes: It’s the same solution every household faces when not enough money’s coming in to pay for everything it would like to buy — namely, to spend less.

Mamdani keeps blaming the “budget crisis” on Mayor Eric Adams’ supposed “underbudgeting,” yet Mamdani’s fellow lefties always slammed Adams for not spending enough.

The new mayor demands these tax hikes to fund his own “free stuff” agenda.

E.g., he wants to add over $1 billion in new “cash assistance” benefits “related to caseload increases” over the next two years, and $2.3 billion in “re-estimated” rental-assistance funding for the same period; why not keep cash giveaways at today’s level of $700 million and deduct the savings from the “gap” that Mamdani insists he can only close by raising taxes?

The Department Education already eats 40% of city outlays, yet he’s budgeting more than half-a-billion bucks to cap class sizes, a gift to the teachers union — without any demand or plan for improved student outcomes.

And other new spending is downright toxic: The mayor means to hire hundreds of new lawyers — signaling a clear intent to bleed local businesses in the name of “consumer protection” — and to add 50 Department of Finance auditors to squeeze city taxpayers.

There’s all kinds of ways to save money that the left refuses to see.

Retired city employees pay nothing toward their lifetime health insurance, for example; the city’s legally on the hook for pension obligations, but health-insurance costs are negotiable, and could mean big savings.

Mamdani also aims to eliminate the “2-out, 1-in” rule for new hires, which keeps employee headcount under control. Getting rid of this standard will accelerate agency headcount, which means added payroll costs for decades.

Don’t fall for Mamdani’s insistence that the city is deep in a budgetary crisis. The left always claims that not having more of your money to spend is a dire emergency.