New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pitching state lawmakers on a smaller corporate tax increase that his aides hope could stand a better chance in Albany, alongside new proposals to tax expensive homes and to shrink a tax credit for pass-through business owners.

The new plan circulated by Mamdani’s administration in recent days would generate about $1.75 billion a year through tax increases on the city’s corporations and unincorporated businesses. That’s a significant change from the statewide corporate tax hike that Mamdani campaigned on, which he estimated would unlock $5 billion in new annual revenue.

The new asks are more specific to companies that do business in New York City, more tailored to certain industries, and smaller.

Mamdani’s aides believe the new version may be more politically viable as they work to persuade a skeptical Governor Kathy Hochul and win the backing of legislative leaders, according to state lawmakers who were briefed on the proposals.

Early Wednesday morning, 60-year-old Manuela “Mannie” Morgado was found dead in her unit at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in an apparent suicide, according to people incarcerated with her and local advocates.

Pamela Smart, incarcerated with Morgado, said she watched in disbelief as staff attempted to resuscitate her longtime friend. “I watched the whole heartbreaking thing, but there was nothing they could do. … I will never forget how blue her feet were,” Smart told New York Focus over the prison messaging service.

Morgado, who was serving a sentence of 20 years-to-life for killing her young child, is the third person to die at the state’s only maximum security women’s prison in the past four weeks. Their deaths come at a time of mounting frustrations within the facility.

Early Wednesday morning, 60-year-old Manuela “Mannie” Morgado was found dead in her unit at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in an apparent suicide, according to people incarcerated with her and local advocates.

Pamela Smart, incarcerated with Morgado, said she watched in disbelief as staff attempted to resuscitate her longtime friend. “I watched the whole heartbreaking thing, but there was nothing they could do. … I will never forget how blue her feet were,” Smart told New York Focus over the prison messaging service.

Morgado, who was serving a sentence of 20 years-to-life for killing her young child, is the third person to die at the state’s only maximum security women’s prison in the past four weeks. Their deaths come at a time of mounting frustrations within the facility.

This essay was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.

My neighbor, Jean Frantz, 52, has been in prison since he was 20 years old. Several of his teenage years were spent locked up, too. He sports a baldie with a razor scar that stretches from the top of his head to the back of his neck, a reminder of darker times earlier in his bid; he’s now served 32 years of the 47-and-a-half-years-to-life sentence he received after a robbery went sideways in Queens.