In the fight for taxes on the rich, Kathy Hochul just blinked.

Earlier this week, the Governor conceded to a tax on second homes in New York City worth over $5 million. The tax is a yearly surcharge on luxury residences in New York City — multimillion-dollar apartments that the wealthy collect and let sit vacant for most of the year. The tax is expected to raise around $500 million every year.

Not so long ago, Governor Hochul said she’d never consider taxes on the rich. While she loves to pretend that she cannot be influenced by her constituents’ demands, we know this isn’t true. Our movement, which recently elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani on a platform of taxing the rich to fund the affordability agenda, and which continues to grow with thousands of people talking to their neighbors, lobbying their legislators, and rallying across the state to tax the rich, has real power.