New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Comptroller Mark Levine issued a dire warning last week: the previous mayor’s financial mismanagement has left New York City with a $2 billion budget gap this year and a $10 billion gap next year. At the exact same time, New York’s richest residents are about to receive a $12 billion federal tax cut as part of the largest income transfer from the working class to the rich in United States history, courtesy of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Even before this transfer, New York’s richest 1 percent were taking home over 45 percent of all income after state taxes.

New Yorkers cannot afford government inaction on revenue. To protect the future of our city and our state, New York must tax the rich.

As the cochairs of New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), we are leaders in the growing movement to tax the rich, fund childcare, and reverse the Trump administration’s cruel cuts to health care, food assistance, and housing. In December, NYC-DSA launched the Tax the Rich to Fund Child Care campaign. New Yorkers sent thousands of letters to Governor Kathy Hochul and their state legislators during the first weekend of canvasses alone.

Following our movement’s pressure, the governor soon committed state funds to increasing childcare availability and decreasing families’ costs. This commitment is a significant and welcome first step. But without revenue raisers, Governor Hochul’s plan falls well short of a truly universal and free childcare program. The state will expand care for two-year-olds in New York City by 30,000 spots over the next three years, far fewer than the 55,000 spots needed. It will also expand pre-kindergarten across New York State over four years and launch a small number of pilot programs to provide care for children under four years old.

But the governor has provided no plan for how to fund 2-Care beyond the next two years, creating a potential program cliff. The proposal also exacerbates geographic inequities by creating spots for over half of New York City two-year-olds and all three-year-olds but only spots for four-year-olds in the rest of the state. The governor’s plan provides no direct support to childcare workers, who make among the lowest wages of any profession in New York. It is difficult to take the state’s funding commitments seriously when its roadmap ends in underpaid workers running underfunded and unequal programs, not universal childcare.

Governor Hochul has also said nothing about whether the state will do anything to prevent 1.5 million New Yorkers from losing health care and hundreds of thousands from losing SNAP benefits. Federal cuts will leave dozens of New York hospitals at risk of closure and thousands of New Yorkers in supportive housing programs at risk of homelessness. Making the rich pay their fair share isn’t only needed to provide some economic relief to New York’s families, it’s needed to prevent an all-out humanitarian crisis in the city.

Luckily, we already have the tools we need to fill New York’s budget gaps and provide real, universal, and free childcare to every New York family. Currently, New York State has six tax brackets for people making less than a million dollars per year and just three for people making more, even though this small number of millionaires and billionaires take home almost half of all income. Existing legislation to fix New York’s regressive income tax structure would create new brackets for the richest New Yorkers and raise $21 billion, more than enough to fully fund a truly universal and free childcare program.

Governor Hochul has instead fearmongered, saying that raising taxes would lead millionaires to leave New York. But research has shown time and time again that the rich do not leave in significant numbers when their taxes have moderately increased in the past. Hochul wants to maintain our regressive tax system to please her wealthy donors, not to protect everyday New Yorkers.

Mayor Mamdani campaigned on two revenue proposals that would also make a world of difference. New York City has a small personal income tax but as it stands, the city collects the same percentage from those who make $65,000 per year as those who make $65 million annually. The Fair Share Act would add a 2 percent surcharge on New York City residents who make over $1 million per year and would raise $4 billion. This amount could fully fund a new Department of Community Safety, make the city’s buses fast and free, and fund hundreds of new affordable housing units. Raising the state’s corporate income tax to match New Jersey’s would raise $7 billion, which could provide support to many New Yorkers set to lose vital federal benefits.

As democratic socialists, we envision a world in which no New Yorker — and no person — struggles to access their basic needs. The majority of New Yorkers want to tax the rich, and we already have strong legislation to make that happen. With new revenue, all New York families across the state could access high-quality childcare with professional and well-paid caretakers for no cost at the point of service. We could enact all of Mayor Mamdani’s affordability agenda and protect New Yorkers from losing health care, food, and shelter.

If you share our vision of a New York that serves all its residents, send a letter to Governor Hochul and your local representatives. Then, join us in talking to your neighbors about our vision. The path to a better New York is clear — the time to tax the rich is now.