Zohran Mamdani will push ahead with tax rises for New York City’s millionaires, dismissing concerns that they will prompt an exodus of the rich.
On New Year’s Eve, Mamdani was sworn in as the first Muslim Mayor of New York City at a at a closed-door ceremony in a disused subway station.
The 34-year-old claimed a stunning election win last year, going from a relative unknown to the mayor of America’s biggest city, riding a wave of anger at the cost of living in New York as voters flocked to his socialist messaging.
One of Mamdani’s headline pledges is to raise the city’s personal income tax rate on annual earnings greater than $1mn by 2 percentage points to about 5.9 per cent and increase the top corporate tax from 7.25 per cent to 11.5 per cent.
As is always the case when increased taxes for the wealthy are suggested, this prompted worries from some that the rich would flee the city as a result.
But Mamdani’s deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, dismissed these fears.
He told the Financial Times: “The people who are leaving are those who can’t afford New York, not the millionaire class.
He added that most people understood that addressing its affordability crisis was “necessary for the business and the success of New York.”
The extra tax revenue will be used to pay for policies such as free universal child care in New York City, free buses, state-owned grocery stories and 200,000 more affordable housing units being built over the next decade.
Following his inauguration on New Year’s Eve, Mamdani was then publicly sworn in by Bernie Sanders on Thursday.
During the public ceremony, the crowd broke out into chants of “tax the rich” when Sanders said making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share is “exactly the right thing to do.”
Mamdani, who placed his hand on the Qur’an to take his oath, then told New Yorkers: “Today begins a new era.”
He vowed he would “govern expansively and audaciously,” adding: “We may not always succeed but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.”
“I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” he said.