Zohran Mamdani takes pro-homeowner stance — but fails to mention property tax threats

Praise the Lord!

Mayor Zohran Mamdani didn’t mention his threatened 9.5% property tax hike during a speech at a Queens church Sunday, drawing speculation that he’s all but dropped the unpopular idea.

The democratic socialist mayor told congregants at the Greater Allen Cathedral in Jamaica – where many parishioners are black homeowners – that he was trying to help them by suspending the sale of tax liens for at least six months.

“Costs have soared,” he said during the seven-minute speech on Palm Sunday. “Two hundred thousand black New Yorkers have been pushed out of this city over the past few decades because they can no longer afford a dignified life here.”

Mamdani emphasized that before entering politics, he was a foreclosure prevention counselor who helped struggling property owners keep their homes, including on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill not far from the church.

Mamdani took to the pulpit on Palm Sunday. Kevin C Downs for NY Post

“This congregation has shown the entire city the possibility of homeownership for a people who have been pushed out,” the mayor said.

Though he touted the plan to block selling of homeowners’ debts on property taxes and water bills, he didn’t discuss his controversial proposal to hike property taxes to close a $5.4 billion gap in the city’s $127 billion budget. Mamdani has threatened a 9.5% property tax unless Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature approve an income tax hike on the wealthy.

Mamdani’s threat has riled some homeowners in black enclaves in Brooklyn and Queens and has been considered dead on arrival by City Council members and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, as previously reported by The Post.

Many of Queens’ power brokers attended the Greater Allen church service, including Rep. Gregory Meeks and Borough President Donovan Richards. Richards applauded Mamdani’s comments.

“It seems like the property tax hike conversation is dead. He got the gospel on what homeownership means for generational wealth,” Richards said. “There are middle class homeowners, civil servants in southeast Queens. Inflation is a real issue.”

Mamdani later attended the Holi parade in Queens.

Asked if Mamdani has abandoned the property tax hike plan, mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec said,

“The Mamdani administration is committed to protecting our city’s homeowners. The Mayor was proud to announce a pause to the private tax lien sale to protect homeowners from predatory debt collectors.”

Mamdani is still actively promoting a series of other tax hikes on the well-to-do to help close the budget gap ahead of the fiscal year beginning July 1 — including the income tax, corporate taxes and inheritance taxes, which critics derisively refer to as the “death tax.”

But those taxes — unlike the property tax — require approval from Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature. Hochul, a Democrat seeking re-election to a second, full-four year term this fall,  has ruled out income tax increases on the wealthy.