Majority of New Yorkers want to tax the rich in NYC

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s biggest priority got a nice bump on Wednesday as new polling found a majority of New Yorkers support his proposal to tax the rich. 

According to the latest Siena poll, 54% of voters said Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature should approve a tax hike on New York City residents making over $1 million. The question posed to voters also included Mamdani’s ultimatum that he would be forced to raise property taxes on everyone in the city if the state did not permit an income tax increase on the city’s wealthiest. Only 29% of those polled said state leaders should not back Mamdani’s proposal.

Support for taxing the rich was higher among New York City voters surveyed by Siena. In the Big Apple, 62% of voters said state leaders should approve the tax hike. And an even larger majority of Democrats – a whopping 72% – gave the proposal a thumbs up.

That’s good news for Mamdani, who is taking a big gamble pitting taxing the rich against increasing property taxes as the only options he has to fill a roughly $5 billion budget hole while dealing with a governor so opposed to hiking taxes. Hochul has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of heeding Mamdani’s pleas, in keeping with her policy since taking office of opposing tax increases. The governor has shown a willingness to extend higher tax rates that were set to sunset – as when she extended a higher tax rate for high-earners in the state last year and proposed extending a higher corporate tax rate this year – but she has rejected any new tax hikes. 

“As we enter budget month for the state, neither Hochul nor either house of the Legislature has indicated public support for Mamdani’s request to allow New York City to raise personal income taxes on City residents earning at least $1 million,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. “Yet, the public is on Mamdani’s side.” 

Both the state Senate and the Assembly have included tax hike proposals in their one-house budget proposals for years, and the leaders from both chambers have cited that fact when asked about Mamdani’s pitch. But Politico New York reported for the first time Tuesday that both chambers plan to formally introduce measures this year that align with the mayor’s ask.

Hochul has made affordability her key agenda item this year as she heads into her first reelection campaign. For the governor, raising taxes on anyone runs counter to that message. She has said that tax increases are not needed, since strong Wall Street bonuses last year are bolstering the state’s tax revenue and will  allow for major investments in spaces like child care without raising additional taxes.

The governor has enjoyed stronger favorability and job approval ratings in recent Siena polls. The former dropped slightly in this latest poll while still remaining positive. And Hochul maintains a double-digit lead over likely Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, though that lead dropped from 26 percentage points in January to 20 points in February.

Republicans will likely attempt to tie Hochul to the democratic socialist Mamdani to attack her in November. But that could backfire. For now, the mayor actually slightly outpaces the governor in favorability. His net statewide favorability is +12 percentage points (47% favorable, 35% unfavorable), while the governor’s net favorability is only +4 points (46% favorable, 42% unfavorable), though a slightly higher percentage of people said they did not know or had no opinion of Mamdani compared to Hochul. Mamdani also has a +1 point net favorability in the suburbs, where attacks tied to him will likely run the most, whereas Hochul has a -6 point net favorability in the same region.

Siena conducted the poll between Feb. 23-26 among 805 registered voters across the state. It has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.