Mamdani’s Albany Agenda Narrows as Tax Fight Crowds Out Other Issues

“The focus at this moment, given the scale of this financial deficit, is addressing the deficit,” Mamdani told New York Focus after his testimony. But, he added: “We’re having a number of conversations all at once about issues of a scale large and small.”

Although Mamdani’s team contacted lawmakers before the hearing to ask what issues they planned to raise, several legislators told New York Focus in recent days that they have not received any specific policy requests from City Hall. The new mayor’s Albany operation is in its infancy, consisting of a small group of holdovers from Eric Adams’ administration as well as First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and senior advisor Simonia Brown — both Albany veterans. (Fuleihan approached several of those aides to introduce himself at Wednesday’s hearing, a sign of how recently the team came together.)

The city is making unexpectedly quick progress on at least one big Albany issue: a proposal to reform the city’s broken property tax system. Sherif Soliman, Mamdani’s budget director, said Wednesday that the city plans to release bills “in a matter of weeks” that would reform the system along the lines recommended by a 2021 commission formed by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. It’s far from certain, however, whether any lawmakers will be willing to support the politically fraught reforms, which would leave some homeowners with far higher tax bills.

And Mamdani is getting a helping hand on some of his other campaign pledges. Hochul’s executive budget proposes extending and expanding J-51, a tax break that encourages renovations in apartment buildings, matching a call Mamdani made while running. Mamdani is supporting Hochul’s proposal, the mayor’s office said.

Biggest of all, Hochul has handed Mamdani a huge victory by helping to fund an expansion of child care in the city, one of his biggest campaign pledges. Although the program itself does not require state approval, it would have been exceedingly difficult to implement without the $1.7 billion that Hochul is committing next year.

But other pledges are getting pushed aside, at least for now. Most notable among them may be Mamdani’s call to borrow an additional $70 billion over the next decade to build 200,000 affordable homes, on top of the roughly $25 billion the city has already allocated for that purpose — which would require raising the city’s legal debt limit from its current ceiling of about $44 billion per year. Some Albany lawmakers may balk at the idea, since the city would need to eventually repay that debt with interest, further straining its already shaky finances.

Mamdani also campaigned on pushing Albany to expand rent stabilization to more new housing, likely by making changes to the 485-x tax break. The mayor has given no indication that he is sticking with that promise. Leila Bozorg, Mamdani’s deputy mayor for housing and planning, told THE CITY this month that she does not see any need to change 485-x.

And Mamdani made no mention of several state bills that he had pledged to support as mayor. They included the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, a statewide version of the city-level measure that Eric Adams vetoed late last year; the Twenty-First Century Anti-Trust Act, a bill by Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris that would let the state more easily break up big companies; and a number of other bills that would reform the clemency process, guarantee a right to counsel in immigration court, and bar local governments from entering into immigration detention contracts with the federal government.

Mamdani did express support Wednesday for the New York for All Act, which would prohibit local law enforcement from collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although Hochul is backing a plan that would stop cities and counties from entering into contracts with ICE or renting out jail space to the feds, New York for All would go further by also prohibiting informal collaboration between local agencies and federal authorities.

Under questioning by Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, a New York for All supporter, Mamdani — who has forged a delicate alliance with the moderate governor — said he supports both proposals.

“I think the governor has taken an important step in what she has announced. I think that this is also incredibly important legislation,” Mamdani said.

Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for City Hall, said the mayor is still committed to issues beyond the ones he raised. “Mayor Mamdani has an ambitious agenda to move New York City forward, and he plans to work collaboratively with the governor and elected leaders in Albany to get it done,” he said. “He will continue working to build more housing, stand up for tenants, and support policy that makes the most expensive city in the country more affordable for working people.”

Lawmakers mostly used Wednesday’s hearing to grill Mamdani on his proposed 2 percent tax on city residents earning over $1 million per year, and four percentage-point tax hike on corporations that do business in the city. Legislators pressed the mayor about whether the measures would drive people and companies out of the city — and some took issue with his argument that the city deserves more because of its disproportionate contributions to the state’s tax base.