
Tax the Millionaires or Cut the City? Inside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s High-Stakes $12 Billion Budget Gamble
New York City has entered a fiscal showdown that could redefine who pays to keep the nation’s largest city running. Just weeks into his tenure, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has floated one of the boldest revenue proposals City Hall has seen in years: a 2% additional tax on households earning more than $1 million, aimed at closing a projected $12 billion budget deficit inherited from the prior administration. The plan has already ignited fierce debate across Wall Street, Albany, and the five boroughs—raising existential questions about fairness, competitiveness, and the future shape of New York’s economy. “This is a crisis with a name and a set of choices behind it,” Mamdani said during recent public remarks, arguing that the city must protect essential services rather than balance the books on the backs of working and middle-income residents. As he put it, “We cannot solve a budget crisis by making New York even more unaffordable for the people who







































