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excerpt from a much better source...(Hint: the most respected paper in NYC). Note that the property tax increase is not the Mayor's goal...but rather a bargaining ploy for changes more in line with getting the wealthiest residents to share more of their "Disposable Income".

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday proposed to raise property tax rates in New York City by nearly 10 percent, a measure he is preparing as a “last resort” to be deployed if he cannot persuade Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on the wealthy.

The suggested 9.5 percent increase would affect more than three million single-family homes, co-ops and condos and over 100,000 commercial buildings, Mr. Mamdani said as he delivered his preliminary spending plan.

The mayor acknowledged that his proposal would not merely force the wealthy to pay more taxes, but would also be a “tax on working- and middle-class New Yorkers,” and stressed that this was not his first choice.

But he noted that New York City mayors had little authority to raise taxes without the governor’s and Legislature’s acquiescence, and said that a city property tax increase — combined with raiding the city’s reserve funds — was the only way to address a looming budget deficit projected to reach $5.4 billion over two years.

“If we cannot follow this first path,” he said, referring to his proposed income tax hike on wealthier New Yorkers, “we will be forced onto a much more damaging path of last resort — one where we have to use the only tools at the city’s disposal: raising property taxes and raiding our reserves.”

“The second path is painful,” he added. “We will continue to work with Albany to avoid it.”

If other options surface, Mr. Mamdani may yet water down or abandon the proposed tax increase as the June 30 city budget deadline draws closer — a possibility that Ms. Hochul alluded to on Tuesday, as she played down the likelihood of city property taxes rising.

“That’s their prerogative to look at that as an option,” she said, suggesting that cost-cutting measures and updated accounting might make such an increase unnecessary. “He’s required to put options on the table; that does not mean that’s the final resolution.”

The budget plan, Mr. Mamdani’s first since becoming mayor, totals $127 billion — a $5 billion increase from the current budget — and would take effect July 1, following revisions and negotiations with the City Council.

By law, city budgets must be balanced. But the mayor’s initial proposal for how to do so seemed less like a last resort and more like an opening foray in a pressure campaign to get Ms. Hochul to back his call to raise taxes on those making $1 million or more a year.

In recent weeks, Mr. Mamdani has seemed to go out of his way not to antagonize the governor, a pro-business Democrat who is up for re-election this year and with whom the new democratic socialist mayor has forged a warm alliance despite their ideological differences.

The mayor recently endorsed Ms. Hochul for re-election and told allies he would most likely skip a “Tax the Rich” rally planned for next week in Albany. And on Tuesday, even as he warned of raising property taxes, Mr. Mamdani praised the governor for her ongoing cash advances to New York City, including $1.5 billion announced on Monday for a host of city services.

Still, the prospect of a property tax rate increase — which New Yorkers have not seen since Michael R. Bloomberg was mayor — did antagonize others, including the city comptroller, Mark D. Levine, and the Council speaker, Julie Menin, who also holds sway in the final city budget.

Ms. Menin, a Democrat, said in a statement that she opposed the property tax proposal, but did not recommend a wealth tax increase.

“At a time when New Yorkers are already grappling with an affordability crisis, dipping into rainy day reserves and proposing significant property tax increases should not be on the table whatsoever,” she said. “The Council believes there are additional areas of savings and revenue that deserve careful scrutiny before increasing the burden on small property owners and neighborhood small businesses.”

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