By Nicolette Cavallaro
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
(TNS)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently convened city and state lawmakers for a series of private meetings to let them know he was “highly unlikely” to pursue his threatened property tax increase, according to a report by the New York Times.
Five weeks after floating the potential hike, the mayor has begun to “quietly retreat” from the concept, the Times reported.
The proposal, intended as leverage to pressure Gov. Kathy Hochul into raising income taxes on the wealthy, instead sparked immediate resistance from both left-leaning allies and centrist Democrats, according to the report.
The backlash illustrated the severe antipathy New Yorkers have toward a property tax system that often disproportionately affects middle-class homeowners.
The proposed property tax increase would have raised $14.8 billion in revenue over four years. Mamdani unveiled the plan as part of his $127 billion budget proposal last month, blaming the budget crunch on his predecessor, Eric Adams.
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Mamdani directs agencies to find savings
“Government must deliver for working people — and every dollar in our budget must work as hard as they do. That’s why I directed every agency to find real savings and cut waste to close our budget gap. This is just the beginning of our work to improve service delivery and make city government the most efficient it can be,” said Mamdani in a news release Wednesday morning.
He has also released a preliminary budget proposal, aimed at closing what City Comptroller Mark Levine described as “the biggest budget gap since the Great Recession.”
In January, Mamdani signed Executive Order 12, which established a chief savings officer at every city agency to review performance, eliminate waste and streamline service delivery. Agencies were required to identify savings of 1.5% for fiscal year 2026 and 2.5% for fiscal year 2027.
City agencies submitted their proposals on March 20.
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© 2026 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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