Socialist NYC mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani wants to hike property taxes for richer and whiter neighborhoods
Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to hike property taxes for “richer and whiter neighborhoods” in an eyebrow-raising proposal that aims to ease the burden on homeowners in the outer boroughs.The soak-the-rich proposal is buried in Mamdani’s campaign platform that calls to fix the city’s notoriously skewed property tax system, in which ritzy brownstones are hit at lower rates than homes and rentals in lower-income neighborhoods.“Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” the proposal reads.Democrats and many Republicans have long pushed to fix the out-of-whack system that ends up hitting poorer, often largely black and brown neighborhoods, with higher property taxes than their neighbors in swanky areas that tend to be majority Caucasian.But Mamdani’s specific mention of “whiter,” wealthier neighborhoods drew outrage from some observers.Many right-wing commentators accused Mamdani, who would be the city’s first mayor of South Asian descent if elected, of targeting white New Yorkers, with one labeling him a “RACIST.”City Councilman David Carr (R-Staten Island), who’s part of the bipartisan push to reform the property tax system, said Mamdani should tone down the “rhetoric” if he’s going to help tackle a very real imbalance.“The objective of our reforms is to make our property tax system fairer and more transparent and to ensure that middle- and working-class homeowners aren’t subsidizing lower taxes for wealthy property owners,” Carr said.“It’s not about blaming people based on race or class or political affiliation, and if Zohran Mamdani wants to come on board, then he should drop the divisive rhetoric.”Mamdani, 33, a two-term Queens assemblyman, pulled off a stunning upset in Tuesday’s ranked-choice Democratic mayoral primary, trouncing former Gov.
Andrew Cuomo in first-pick votes after running an unabashe...