If New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gets his way, half of everything New Yorkers work a lifetime for \u2013 including their homes, their businesses or farms, and their savings \u2013 could be stripped away on their deathbeds.<\/p>\n
No more Empire State; he\u2019d make it the Expropriation State.<\/p>\n
Only one thing in life is certain: We all die.<\/p>\n
Mamdani is exploiting that certainty to close what he claims is a $5.4 billion city budget gap.<\/p>\n
More than that, he aims to undermine the foundations of American life by attacking wealth accumulation, homeownership, and private property, per the radical agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n
Currently, New York is one of a handful of states that imposes a death tax, a 16% levy on estates worth more than $7 million.<\/p>\n
But last week, the tax wish list Mamdani circulated to state legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed lowering the threshold to a mere $750,000 \u2013 which would clobber millions more New Yorkers all across the state with a punishing tax.<\/p>\n
He would also hike the rate to a whopping 50%, two and a half times the next highest rate \u2013 20%, charged in Hawaii and Washington state.<\/p>\n
The worst feature of Mamdani\u2019s tax proposal is its built-in \u201ccliff,\u201d meaning that once an estate hits $750,000 in value, the confiscatory 50% rate applies to all assets, not just the amount above that figure.<\/p>\n
Half the estate gets wiped out, and Albany steps in to take it.<\/p>\n
Consider: The average home value in Westchester County right now is $823,340, while the median home price in Nassau County is a staggering $875,000.<\/p>\n
Even assuming no other assets, the legacy of most Westchester and Nassau homeowners would fall into the tax collector\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
Bruce Blakeman, Hochul\u2019s Republican rival for governor in November, quickly pounced on the issue, calling it \u201cthe most extreme Death Tax in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren will lose half the value of their parents\u2019 home\u2026and family businesses will have to be sold off just to pay this cruel tax,\u201d he stated in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Hochul herself, though, has been silent on Mamdani\u2019s pitch.<\/p>\n
And while it\u2019s unlikely she\u2019ll actively back something so radical, Mamdani has now injected the idea into the political conversation in Albany.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s outrageous 50% rate is just a first bid: You can bet that his allies in the leftist state legislature will impose some form of estate-tax hike soon.<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t hear Mamdani\u2019s voters complaining \u2013 he\u2019s the mayor of renters.<\/p>\n
A majority of New Yorkers statewide \u2013 51% \u2013 own their own homes, but in New York City, the figure is a mere 32%.<\/p>\n
Mamdani swept into City Hall on a promise to freeze rents and increase government power over housing; the homeownership ideal, and the dream of passing your home and your prosperity to your kids, is antithetical to him and his democratic socialist compatriots.<\/p>\n
Even a watered-down version of Mamdani\u2019s proposal would devastate New York\u2019s farming industry, 98% of which is made up of family farms.<\/p>\n
The average net farm income is $76,281 \u2013 hardly even middle class \u2013 but, based on current land values, the majority of those farms would fall into the state\u2019s clutches under Mamdani\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
The irony is, raising the estate tax would likely be a net revenue loser, costing the state tax dollars instead of increasing them.<\/p>\n
Economists Enrico Moretti and Daniel J. Wilson have found that when states with high income-tax rates hike the estate tax as well, high earners flee, causing more loss of tax revenue than gain.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can either be progressive on income tax or be progressive on adopting an estate tax, but if you do both, it\u2019s going to backfire,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n
The highest earners flee to death-friendlier states, simply to preserve family wealth.<\/p>\n
Mamdani claims he\u2019s pushing confiscatory taxes because he needs money to close the city\u2019s budget gap.<\/p>\n
New York City\u2019s budget is larger than the budget of the state of Florida, which has nearly three times as many people.<\/p>\n
Let him cut spending if he needs some breathing room.<\/p>\n
Truth is, Mamdani and his DSA allies in the state legislature oppose private property and will use any pretext to confiscate it.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let these radicals, elected by urban voters who don\u2019t care a whit about homeownership, small businesses, or family farming, destroy the lifetime dreams of millions of New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Whether you usually vote Republican or Democratic, it\u2019s time to sound the alarm \u2013 before this un-American attack on property rights picks up any more steam.<\/p>\n
Betsy McCaughey<\/a> is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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