{"id":41545,"date":"2025-05-30T12:43:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T19:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41545"},"modified":"2025-05-30T12:45:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T19:45:45","slug":"41545","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/41545\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a New York mayoral candidate have a solution to SF, state budget crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 29, 2025 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani\u00a0is running against Cuomo\u2014and has a good plan to fund social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lurie, Newsom, face strong pushback from labor as cuts loom. Maybe everyone should be looking east, where taxing the rich could get a socialist elected mayor of the nation’s largest city.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to The Agenda, Tim Redmond’s news and politics newsletter. You can sign up for our upcoming newsletters Big Week and Good Taste as well as adjust the emails you receive from us here<\/a>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie and Gov. Gavin Newsom are facing budget crises that threaten basic services, and as they prepare for brutal cuts, they are also facing a serious adversary: Organized labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In rallies at City Hall and at the last Board of Regents meeting, broad coalitions of local and statewide union members have opposed the deep cuts that have already impacted essential programs and may lead to layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 14, more than 1,000 city workers essentially took over City Hall with a boisterous rally that included a banner drop over the rotunda\u2014aimed directly at Lurie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rally.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC workers rally against staffing shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labor leaders have allies in both the state Legislature and the Board of Supes; Budget Chair Connie Chan won re-election with strong labor support. And from the tone and participation in the two rallies so far, it appears that much of the state and local labor movement is together on avoiding service cuts (and cutting workers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the local level, labor groups are talking about the efforts by big tech companies to avoid paying taxes to the tune of more than $300 million. I have seen nothing from anyone in the state Legislature suggesting ways to bring in more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at some point, that has to be on the table\u2014and it\u2019s interesting to see how this is playing out in the New York mayor\u2019s race.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a somewhat stunning turn of events, New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani is running a close second<\/a> to formerly disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June Democratic primary. Mamdani, a socialist, is close to a statistical tie for the lead, polls show, and in a ranked-choice-voting race, he could emerge on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary winner will likely be the city\u2019s next mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamdani has an ambitious agenda, including free bus service , universal child care, affordable housing and more. He\u2019s also offering a specific plan to pay for it,<\/a> and to make up for the federal cuts the city will face, with a plan to tax big corporations and wealthy individuals who will benefit from Trump\u2019s tax cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Interesting note: Trump and his allies aren\u2019t even bothering to pretend any more that so-called \u201ctrickle-down\u201d economics will make us all better off. He\u2019s just calling for tax cuts on the rich for the sake of making a few people richer; there\u2019s not even a remote suggestion that this could help anyone else.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s Mamdani:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wealthy have seen a steep decline in their tax rates over the last 60 years, but no one has sought to rob the poor and give to the rich as much as Donald Trump. The first Trump administration\u2019s signature accomplishment was a tax cut for corporations and millionaires\u2014a cut that has already cost our country trillions of dollars. Now, Donald Trump wants more tax cuts that will cost $4 trillion over the next ten years. Congressional Republicans are committed to pushing these through, even if it means cutting trillions of dollars in spending on Medicaid, food stamps, public schools, public transportation, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what, he says, should local communities do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Put simply, we have no choice but to fight back and protect

everyday New Yorkers. And fighting back means finding a way to fund an agenda that allows working people to thrive amidst Trump\u2019s chaos: affordable housing, fast and free buses, universal childcare, safe streets and subways, and more. The Mamdani administration has a plan to pay for this agenda by raising taxes on the most profitable corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers, reversing decades of tax cuts and disinvestment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, Mamdani is calling for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Raising the top state Corporate Tax rate to 11.5 percent\u2014the same rate as New Jersey\u2019s. Raises $5 billion a year.

Adding a 2 percent New York City Income Tax for anyone making more than $1 million a year. Raises $4 billion a year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Become a 48 Hills member. Support fearless journalism today.<\/strong>Yes, I’ll Support<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York\u2019s budget is almost ten times the size of San Francisco\u2019s, as is the population.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The top 1 percent of NYC taxpayers\u2014about 34,000 households\u2014earn over $1 million each year. This tiny share of the city population takes home 35 percent of all income earned by New York City residents. The top 1 percent also benefited from a large income tax cut under Trump\u2019s first tax bill, when their tax rate was cut from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. This tax cut is likely to be extended in the next federal budget, at a cost of $3.6 trillion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The same pattern is true in San Francisco\u2014the very rich take home a huge share of the total income earned in the city, and own a vast percentage of all the wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California has almost 200 billionaires\u2014more than any other state, including New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So: There\u2019s a way to address our budget problems without cuts to services, just by making the people who benefit from the Trump tax cuts pay a little bit more. (No, the data shows, they won\u2019t move; in fact, they\u2019ll do just fine<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t expect Lurie to talk about this, or Newsom\u2014but labor folks, and some of the supes, and some of the state legislators, could at least raise the issue. Taxing the rich on a local and state level is not that radical; it might even get a socialist elected mayor of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 29, 2025 (48hills.org) New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani\u00a0is running against Cuomo\u2014and has a good plan to fund social services. Lurie, Newsom, face strong pushback from labor as cuts loom. Maybe everyone should be looking east, where taxing the rich could get a socialist elected mayor of the nation’s largest… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41545"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41549,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41545\/revisions\/41549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}