Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo on Monday contended that Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is dreaming an impossible dream.
The former governor says the Queens assembly member’s plan to get Albany on board with raising taxes on corporations and millionaires is an “impossibility” because lawmakers outside New York City will not support tax hikes only benefiting the five boroughs.
Cuomo, who served as governor for 11 years, sought to tear apart Mamdani’s core proposed mechanism for funding his affordability-focused platform during a July 28 interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer. He argued that representatives for parts of the state outside the Big Apple would not support raising taxes statewide if their constituents would not benefit from it.
“A Buffalo assemblyman or a Long Island senator is not going to raise taxes on their corporations to give the money to New York City,” Cuomo told Lehrer. “That is not going to happen. Otherwise, it would be a former assemblyman from Buffalo and a former senator from Long Island. … It is an impossibility that a state legislature would raise statewide corporate taxes dedicated to only New York City.”
Cuomo further charged that Mamdani’s plan is dead on arrival, given that Gov. Kathy Hochul — who is running for reelection next year — has said she has no appetite to raise taxes, even on corporations and the wealthy.
Monday was hardly the first time that Cuomo and Mamdani’s other opponents have tried to poke holes in his proposal to boost the state’s corporate tax rate to 11.5% and hike income taxes on those making over $1 million annually by 2%.
The democratic socialist has floated the increases as the central way to fund his key campaign promises, such as making city buses free and faster-moving, and implementing universal subsidized child care.
Cuomo ‘stood in the way’ of progress, Mamdani aide says
Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec argued Cuomo “stood in the way” when Mamdani and other state lawmakers pushed to raise taxes on the wealthy in 2021, although the former governor ultimately signed the hike into law.
“Don’t get it twisted: Andrew Cuomo will stop at nothing to protect the billionaires and corporations making life more expensive for New Yorkers,” Pekec said.
In response, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said: “The governor proposed a millionaires tax in his 2021 budget amid the financial burdens of the pandemic and it was put and remains on the books. Mamdani’s operation should get their facts right.”
Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment claims that he denies, is mounting an underdog general election run against Mamdani after losing to the democratic socialist Assembly member by a wide margin in last month’s primary. Also running against Mamdani are incumbent Mayor Eric Adams — who is also on an independent line, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and Jim Walden — an attorney also running as an independent.
Cuomo argues that while Mamdani’s proposals sound good on paper, they will not work in practice.
“The reason it’s dangerous is because none of it happens, none of it works,” the former governor said of Mamdani’s proposals. “Then you just disillusion the public, and more importantly, you made no progress; nothing will have happened.”
In addition to more aggressively trying to discredit Mamdani’s platform, Cuomo has revamped his general election campaign by hitting the streets and pressing the flesh far more often. He has also been making more of the vertical social media videos that helped propel Mamdani’s campaign.
Political experts have told amNewYork that those efforts are likely in vain.
