MESSAGE
| DATE | 2025-11-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Resist Mamdani
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Gov. Kathy Hochul is barely a week removed from celebrating Zohran
Mamdani’s mayoral victory — and New York’s ascendant left is already
threatening to take her down.
At a raucous “Tax the Rich” rally in Union Square on Sunday, the
Democratic Socialists of America and top progressive lawmakers delivered
a blunt message to the governor: embrace the incoming mayor’s sweeping
tax increases on the wealthy, or prepare to be replaced.
“Kathy Hochul, if you get a third strike, you’re out!” shouted state
Sen. Jabari Brisport, drawing cheers from hundreds of activists.
Brisport accused the governor of repeatedly blocking his universal
childcare legislation and made clear the left’s patience had run out.
“There’s no way to get universal child care without raising taxes on the
rich. If she blocks it, then she has to go.”
The warning comes as lawmakers aligned with Mamdani move aggressively to
capitalize on his upset win. State Sen. John Liu and Assemblymember
Phara Souffrant Forrest introduced legislation last week authorizing a
2% surcharge on incomes over $1 million — a tax they say could generate
up to $4 billion annually for housing, childcare, transit and healthcare.
DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo framed Mamdani’s mayoral win as a mandate
for Albany to fall in line. “Twelve days ago, over one million voters
made it very clear what we want,” he said. “Raise taxes on the rich.”
Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani in the general election, now finds herself
boxed in. She has publicly vowed to hold the line on income taxes and
rejected efforts to raid MTA funding to subsidize Mamdani’s free-bus
plan — putting her in direct conflict with the incoming mayor’s agenda
and his newly empowered movement.
But she’s also facing a brutal reelection fight next year, likely
against Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, while navigating a Democratic
conference increasingly terrified of left-wing primaries.
Meanwhile, business leaders are already raising alarms. Jersey City
Mayor Steven Fulop, incoming head of the Partnership of the City of New
York, blasted Mamdani’s proposed corporate tax hike — from 7.3% to 11% —
as “absolute suicide,” warning it would drive employers across the
Hudson overnight. “An absolute dream for New Jersey,” he said.
State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, however, pledged to
use his influence to push the Mamdani agenda, calling universal
childcare and free buses “important and necessary.”
That leaves Hochul squeezed between an emboldened socialist movement
demanding billion-dollar revenue hikes and a business community warning
of economic catastrophe — all as her political base fractures.
The fight over Mamdani’s tax plan may be months away, but the message to
Hochul is already unmistakable: New York’s left won November — and it
intends to govern like it.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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