NYC Mayoral Candidate Would Raise Taxes on Rich & Corporations To Lower Costs of Childcare, Transportation for Working-Class City Residents
Today, a week before election day for New York City’s next mayor, Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) released a report showing 62 billionaires and billionaire descendants had supplied over one-third (37%, or $18.7 million) of all the outside spending in the race–and almost every dollar has been used against Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani has said he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist and has proposed raising individual and corporate taxes on the city’s richest residents. The roughly five dozen billionaires have pumped more cash into the election through super PACs than have the 60,000 small-dollar donors who’ve given directly to the candidates’ campaigns. Former mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg had as of Oct. 14 contributed by far the most to the anti-Mamdani push, $8.3 million; he was trailed by the family of cosmetics queen Estee Lauder (the family collectively has given $2.6 million); hedge fund manager Bill Ackman ($1.5 million); and oil tycoon John Hess ($1 million).
“Billionaires feel threatened by a modest proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help make life more affordable for ordinary city residents. That’s why they’re spending millions to drown out the effort with their money,” said David Kass, ATF’s executive director. “Politicians and policymakers around the country should take note of how popular a progressive tax agenda can be with Americans across the political spectrum. Zohran Mamdani is showing the way for politicians who still haven’t figured out that fairer taxes on the rich and corporations are both good policy and good politics.”