In the battle between democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and centrist New York Governor Kathy Hochul over whether to increase taxes on the state’s superrich, New Yorkers are firmly on the mayor’s side, with 62 percent approving of his plan. So are both houses of the state legislature. Much of the city council approves too, with twenty-two members calling on the governor to give the city the power to increase taxes on millionaires by 2 percent.
One important New York City political power player opposes taxing the rich though: Julie Menin, the oligarchic Speaker of the New York City Council. The Speaker doesn’t have as much power as the mayor or the governor, but Menin is playing an important and insidious role in setting the terms of debate on this issue.
The city’s ruling class breathed a sigh of relief when Menin gathered the support to become city council Speaker in November, just after Mamdani’s election as mayor. That’s in part because she’s part of the superrich class herself. Menin’s husband, Bruce Menin, is a partner and cofounder of Crescent Heights, a privately held real estate development company with a nationwide portfolio, and the couple lives in an Upper East Side apartment valued somewhere around $5–9.5 million. She’s not just another politician with an opinion — she’s a class warrior for her fellow plutocrats, publicly leading the resistance against the mildest sign of redistribution from inside city government and, unfortunately, informing the governor’s thinking.
At stake in New York City’s budget negotiations is the survival of Mamdani’s wildly popular agenda as well as the ability of millions of New Yorkers to thrive. These negotiations are currently underway at two different levels of government: the city and the state.
At the state level, both houses of the legislature agree that with a $5.4 billion budget gap in the city, horrific cuts from the federal government to food stamps and health…
Auteur: Liza Featherstone
