New Yorkers Want to Tax the Rich. Julie Menin Doesn’t Care.
Zohran Mamdani has called for taxing the rich to close New York City’s large budget deficit. His position is popular with most New Yorkers, but wealthy City Council Speaker Julie Menin is giving cover to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to raise taxes.
Julie Menin’s refusal to push for higher taxes on the wealthy is of a piece with her other moves as the highest-ranking member of the city council. (Jim Spellman / WireImage via Getty Images)
It was not an April Fool’s Day joke.
On the morning of Wednesday, April 1, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the most powerful member of the fifty-one-person legislative body, made an announcement regarding the contentious city budget. Rather than work with the mayor to find new revenues, Menin has continued to dig in her heels in opposition to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive budget priorities.
Menin is promising to balance the city’s budget by revising estimates of revenue from existing sources and achieving savings through cuts (“right-sizing”), but she continues to oppose taxing the rich and refuses to join forces with the mayor to pressure Governor Kathy Hochul on the issue.
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