Mayor Zohran Mamdani is floating an extreme new proposal to change the state’s estate tax — a move that would hurt middle-class New Yorkers and their loved ones.
The socialist mayor wants to drastically slash the estate tax exemption threshold from the $7 million limit to just $750,000, a drop of more than 90%, according to a memo City Hall recently circulated to Albany lawmakers.
The “Tax Revenue Raising Proposals” document is a wish list containing dozens of different tax hikes that could be employed to bail the Big Apple out, according to Bloomberg.
In addition to dropping the estate tax exemption — to what would be the lowest in the US — Mamdani is also pitching increasing the top rate to a whopping 50%, from the current 16%, in what he said would raise $4 billion combined, the outlet reported.
City Hall has been seeking more help from the state Legislature to help cover what it says is a $5.4 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Other “revenue raiser proposals” on the city’s memo included:
- A property tax surcharge of 1% for homes valued at $5 million-plus, to raise $725 million.
- A 1% tax on home sales over $1 million, to raise $161 million.
- A “City Mansion Tax” and supplemental tax on residential properties valued at $5 million or more, to raise $321 million.
- Adding a state-level surcharge on capital gains income over $500,000 per year, to raise $12 billion.
- Lift the exemption of sales tax for sales of precious metal bullion and coins over $1,000, to raise roughly $600 million statewide and $300 million in the city.
The proposal was part of a presentation made to state lawmakers last week as they started to hash out New York’s budget with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.
The document also listed Mamdani’s “priorities,” which he’s been vocal about, of hiking personal income taxes by 2% for New Yorkers making $1 million or more, which he estimated would raise some $3 billion.
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The other priorities on the memo included:
- Hike the city corporate tax to 10.8% from 9% for financial sector firms, and from 8.85% to 10.62% for non-finance sectors, to raise an estimated $1.5 billion.
- Increase the NYC Unincorporated Business Tax to 4.4%, from 4% for those with business income over $5 million, to raise around $250 million.
Mamdani has been putting pressure on Hochul and lawmakers to ship more than $5 billion to New York City to help bail out the city from a purported budget gap.
If not, the mayor has threatened to raise city property taxes by nearly 10%.
The slate of news taxes or changes has leaked out since last week. The Post first reported some of the details of the memo. New York Focus later obtained more of the proposal. Bloomberg posted the full document on Friday.