New York City’s socialist mayor just watched his own City Council undercut his push for higher taxes, releasing a rival budget plan that closes a $5 billion gap without raising a single rate. Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled the alternative Wednesday, proposing to fill Mamdani’s shortfall through spending adjustments, revised revenue estimates, and roughly $2 billion in savings. No new corporate taxes required.
The move blindsided Albany Democrats who had spent weeks lining up behind tax increases to cover the hole in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s budget. Mamdani campaigned on hiking the city’s corporate tax rate to 11.25% and has been lobbying Albany for smaller versions of the same idea this year.
“That’s a good thing,” state Assemblyman Charles Fall, a Democrat from Staten Island, told the New York Post after Menin released her plan. “People are complaining about wasteful spending under the prior administration. Well, what is being done about it?”
The embarrassment comes on top of Albany lawmakers already blowing their April 1 state budget deadline with no deal in sight.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has repeatedly signaled she won’t deliver more state resources to the city beyond the $1.5 billion already committed, along with billions in new childcare spending. “Now it’s up to the City Council,” she said earlier this month.
Hochul has proposed extending the existing 7.25% statewide corporate tax on businesses earning more than $5 million for three more years. Both chambers of the state legislature have pushed for outright increases, and Mamdani’s allies in Albany had been counting on that pressure to force a hike through. Menin’s proposal strips that away.
The council’s plan does not include a final breakdown of every line item, but Menin’s office says the combination of savings and realistic revenue projections makes a tax hike unnecessary.
Mamdani’s office has not responded publicly to the council’s alternative.
