Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday is set to finally unveil his executive budget for New York City — without the property-tax increase he warned could be necessary if his “tax the rich” dreams evaporated.
Insiders revealed that Mamdani backed away from his months-old threats to impose a nearly 10% property tax hike and drain the city’s reserves to help close a reputed $5.4 billion budget gap.
He and Gov. Kathy Hochul instead announced Tuesday morning that the city will receive an additional $4 billion in state funding to help close the gap.
Hizzoner had partly used the threats of a higher property tax as cudgel to push for a tax hike on millionaires, but that appears DOA at the state level.
Other major details on the spending plan – which Mamdani will outline at 1:30 p.m. – remain unclear, including its top-line dollar amount.
“This whole thing proves there was never a budget crisis, it was all for the mayor saying he wants to tax the rich, it was performative,” an insider told The Post.
“It’s all these different things that were just fake. This is the theater of the absurd, manufacture a budget crisis. He basically put the whole city in panic for months.”
Both the proposed property tax hike and plan to raid the city’s rainy day fund prompted massive blowback from everyday New Yorkers and credit agencies.