Tag: new york

Kathy Hochul Faces Backlash After Reversing Course on Taxes Amid NYC Proposal

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing criticism after backing a new tax proposal targeting wealthy property owners in New York City, a move that critics say contradicts her earlier pledge not to raise taxes, as reported by The New York Post.

The controversy centers on a proposed pied-à-terre tax that would apply to certain high-value secondary residences in the city.

The plan, which has been discussed in Albany for years, gained renewed attention after Hochul signaled support for it in recent days.

The proposal would target roughly 13,000 second homes in New York City valued at $5 million or more.

According to the governor’s office, the surcharge is expected to generate at least $500 million annually, with the revenue intended to help address the city’s estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit.

Hochul’s shift comes after months of pressure from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and members of the Democratic Socialists of America, who have pushed for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations.

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“Mamdani Mart” Exposes The Inefficiency Of Socialism In One Chart

Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z New Media published the most popular charts of the week on financial markets, but the most revealing one came at the end of the note: a comparison suggesting that New York City’s first grocery store, which will soon be run by unhinged socialists, will be structurally less efficient than private-sector supermarkets.

But who cares when it’s not taxpayer monies?

According to the New York Post, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed city-owned grocery store in East Harlem would require roughly $30 million in taxpayer funding.

At just 9,000 square feet, the project implies a construction cost of about $3,000 per square foot – an exceptionally and alarmingly high number by grocery industry standards. 

From an economic standpoint, the “Mamdani Mart” underscores a familiar pattern: state-directed supermarkets often fail to achieve the cost discipline, operational efficiency, and scale seen in private-sector chains.

This story has played out time and again in the U.S., as unhinged left-wingers have experimented with socialism:

The end result is Cuba.

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Zohran Mamdani to Introduce New York City to Exciting New Innovation of… Trash Cans – By 2031

New York City’s new democratic socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani took a moment this week to tell people of the city about an exciting new invention called rat-proof trash bins, which he will be implementing by the year 2031.

You absolutely could not make this up.

Couldn’t he put these bins all over the city by say… this coming week if he wanted to? Who needs a five-year plan to put out trash cans?

WABC News in New York reports:

Containerized trash is expanding to six more New York City districts by the end of 2027, as the Mamdani administration targets citywide containerization by 2031.

Businesses and low-density residential buildings are already required to put their trash bags in containers for pickup.

Over the next year, the Sanitation Department will distribute large Empire Bins to all residential buildings with 30 units or more in the six districts.

Officials say 6,500 large Empire garbage bins will be rolled out for more than 3,500 buildings in this expansion.

They can be only opened by building staff with a keycard, or by sanitation workers…

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement, “In the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have their sidewalks covered in garbage. By finishing the job on containerization, we will ensure New York City’s streets remain the envy of the world. We have the plan, we’re investing the money and we’re delivering on the promise of clean, healthy streets for every neighborhood.”

He actually did an announcement about this.

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DOJ says Mamdani would be sued if he tries requiring white neighborhoods to pay higher property tax

he U.S. Justice Department said it would sue New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he tries requiring white neighborhoods to pay higher property taxes.

Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, was responding to a socal media post about a New York Post front page from the NYC mayoral campaign.

“This is illegal. If it happens, expect a lawsuit. Or many,” she wrote.

Earlier this month, Mamdani released details of his current tax plan, which includes requiring luxury second homes to pay higher property taxes.

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Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy SLAPS New York with $73 MILLION Federal Funding Cut for REFUSING to Revoke Illegally Issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses to Illegals

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is withholding a staggering $73,502,543 in federal highway funds from the state of New York.

Because far-left New York Democrats under Governor Kathy Hochul have flat-out refused to revoke thousands of illegally issued nondomiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) handed out in violation of federal law.

Back in December 2025, The Gateway Pundit reported on the FMCSA audit that flagged New York as one of the worst offenders in the nation for rubber-stamping CDLs to non-domiciled drivers, many of them illegal aliens or migrants whose temporary work authorizations had lapsed.

“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership. Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy at the time. “This administration will never stop fighting to keep you and your family safe on our roads.”

On Thursday, the Trump administration stripped the state of New York of more than $73 million in federal highway funding after it failed to revoke thousands of improperly issued commercial learner’s permits and CDLs.

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‘Happy Tax Day’: NYC Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani Posts Menacing Message to New Yorkers

No one loves April 15th more than Democrats as they dream and plan how to spend your money.

On tax day, radical communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a menacing message to New Yorkers, reminding them that he is coming for them.

The video starts out with Mamdani telling viewers, “When I ran for mayor, I said I was gonna tax the rich.”

Then, with a grin and an attempt at a bit of Hollywood flair (which translated into creepiness), he leaned menacingly into the camera, tapped the lens and declared, “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”

“I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.”

“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich, those who store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here.”

“But even so, they’re able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world. And most of the time, these units are sitting empty since, again, they don’t actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.”

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Letitia James’ Crusade Against Abortion Pill Reversal Is Also Killing Free Speech

State attorneys general are duty-bound to seek justice for the weak and powerless, not to use their immense power to harass them. But New York Attorney General Letitia James’ policing of private conversations about the abortion pill reversal (APR) protocol amounts to a cynical abuse of state power.

Two years ago, James launched a legal assault on Heartbeat International and 11 affiliated pregnancy centers in New York. She claimed the centers and Heartbeat — the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the world — had engaged in false advertising, supposedly deceiving women by sharing scientific findings supporting the safety and effectiveness of APR.

APR is a safe and effective way for a woman to improve her odds of continuing her pregnancy to term after she has ingested mifepristone — the first pill in an abortion drug regimen designed to block progesterone from the growing baby. A worldwide network of more than 1,500 health care professionals is available to prescribe bioidentical progesterone to counteract the mifepristone in order to reverse its effects. Most notably, statistics suggest that more than 8,000 babies have been saved through the abortion pill reversal protocol.

Thousands of smiling — living — babies and emotional testimonies of grateful moms illustrate the success of a chosen medical treatment. And James “has no business butting into the intimate medical decision of [a] … mother.” It’s why Heartbeat and its New York affiliates filed their own lawsuit, arguing that defendant James has provided “no evidence of fraud, misrepresentation, material omission, or harm to anyone” in providing free services or speaking about the safety and efficacy of APR.

This week, Heartbeat and its affiliates have their day in court. On Wednesday, April 15, their attorneys argued that James’ hostile lawsuit should be dismissed because it targets free speech and participation in public debate. James’ lawsuit is a classic Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Or, more bluntly, James’ efforts amount to a bully’s legal slap in the face to keep small pro-life nonprofits from sharing a life-saving message she doesn’t like.

Her friends have called her a “voice for the voiceless.” She claims to “speak truth to power, and challenge the status quo.” And she frequently talks of “using [her] position to address the needs of those who are locked out of the sunshine of opportunity.”

But the attorney general ought not ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent defense of free speech rights, even when offering medical services. At the end of March, the court delivered an 8-1 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, noting that counseling conversations are speech and Colorado cannot silence viewpoints in the counseling room. The majority warned that “[t]oday, tomorrow, and forever, too, any professional speech that deviates from ‘current beliefs about the safety and efficacy of various medical treatments’ could be silenced with relative ease.”

Sensitive to the danger of stifling innovation in medicine, they continued, “Medical consensus, too, is not static; it evolves and always has. A prevailing standard of care may reflect what most practitioners believe today, but it cannot mark the outer boundary of what they may say tomorrow.”

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You’ll Roll Your Eyes When You Find Out What New York Democrats Want to Ban Next

Democratic lawmakers in New York are championing an innovative new piece of legislation that would protect residents by banning BB guns.

You read that right. Democrats think preventing people from using BB guns and other imitation firearms will somehow keep people safe.

New York Senate Bill S9212 was introduced in February, and it would amend the state’s General Business Law to expand regulations around airguns and other imitation weapons. It updates the legal definition of “imitation weapon” to include air rifles and pellet guns. Under the updated language, “Imitation weapon” refers to any device or object, “including an air rifle, pellet gun, or ‘B-B’ gun,” made of plastic, wood, metal or any other material which can be perceived as a firearm. 

The measure would also impose more severe restrictions on who can purchase certain types of air guns. It prohibits companies from selling these products to anyone under 18. Currently, one has to be at least 16 to purchase these products. 

The bill also toughens enforcement by increasing the financial penalty for violators. Anyone who breaks this law “shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars for each violation,” an increase from the previous cap of $500.

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NY’s ‘green elephant’ climate projects are collapsing under the weight of . . . math

Nearly two dozen New York clean energy projects are likely to get scrapped because the financial math doesn’t add up — though the state powers that be don’t want to admit that it never did.

Officially, the New York State Energy Research Development Authority, aka NYSERDA, is simply refusing to renegotiate state contracts to build various wind and solar plants, likely leading its counterparties to pull out.

These companies want more cash because the projects’ costs have soared since the deals were inked — mainly because NYSERDA winked at unlikely early estimates with an expectation that it would OK more realistic numbers later on.

In at least one earlier round, it simply rebid the contracts to reflect true costs, but that game is up now that those costs are becoming undeniable, and consumers are already screaming at the electric rate hikes needed to cover the bills.

It’s all part of the con that is New York’s 2019 Climate Act, a scam that set insane goals for decarbonizing the state’s electricity grid and outlined imaginary steps to paint the transition as practical. 

Green ideologues always figure deception is the best way to get governments started on such “reforms,” hoping they can then hector the politicians into keeping the scam going by concealing how exorbitant the costs really are.

Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo jumped on board as he eyed a presidential run; his successor, Kathy Hochul, declined to call out the lunacy until now, when she’s running for re-election as the economic pain starts to hit.

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Mamdani Condemns NYPD Officers After Chaotic Arrest Video Goes Viral

New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned two NYPD officers after a chaotic arrest video out of Brooklyn went viral online.

The footage showed a violent struggle between two officers and a suspect inside a liquor store.

The incident occurred on Tuesday at a store in Brooklyn, according to a report from WNYW.

A source told the outlet that the officers were attempting to arrest a man they suspected of being involved in a drug deal.

The situation escalated quickly when the man repeatedly resisted arrest.

Video from the scene showed officers repeatedly punching the suspect in an effort to get him to the ground.

The lengthy video ended with the suspect being escorted out of the store in handcuffs.

The NYPD has since placed both officers on modified duty.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the move during a news conference on Wednesday.

She said the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau is reviewing the incident.

Tisch added that more information will be released as the investigation unfolds.

Mamdani, a socialist who supported the “defund the police” movement, weighed in on the video.

He shared the footage and issued a sharp condemnation of the officers, presumably without having all the facts.

“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable,” Mamdani wrote.

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