Mayor Zohran Mamdani told state lawmakers in Albany on Wednesday that the most direct path to closing New York City’s projected budget shortfall is raising taxes on top earners, formally urging the legislature to approve a 2% income-tax increase on people making more than $1 million.
“I’m asking for a 2% raise in personal income taxes on the most affluent New Yorkers, someone earning $1 million a year. The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes,” Mamdani said during his first “Tin Cup Day” appearance.
“That 2% tax alone would resolve nearly half of our budget deficit. I will continue to advocate for these policies not only because they offer the most direct route out of this budget crisis, but because they will also transform what is possible in our state,” he added.
The mayor said the proposed surcharge would build on his campaign pledge to push Albany to increase the state corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%, framing the push as necessary to stabilize city finances.
Mamdani has argued the city inherited a roughly $12 billion two-year gap — about $2 billion in the current fiscal year and roughly $10 billion in the next — but said his administration has cut the shortfall to about $7 billion through what he described as “aggressive” savings, alongside stronger-than-expected revenue and bonus-related tax receipts.
Critics, meanwhile, have challenged the size and presentation of the deficit, pointing to the better-than-projected revenue picture as evidence the hole was overstated. Mamdani acknowledged the stronger receipts, while maintaining the budget remains far from balanced.
He also revived a long-running City Hall complaint that New York City sends more revenue to the state than it receives back — a claim that has been debated in recent analyses of the city-state fiscal relationship.
More over at The New York Post:
Mamdani asks NYS lawmakers for 2% tax hike on wealthy https://t.co/CyaWwd4vId pic.twitter.com/bXX4HHn0sj
— New York Post (@nypost) February 11, 2026
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