Share and Follow
The “Tax the Rich” initiative primarily targets the wealthy elite, yet the Democratic Socialists of America are now advocating for a series of tax increases that could heavily impact New York’s middle class.
The New York City chapter of the party is querying prospective candidates for their endorsement on whether they would support raising income taxes on individuals earning over $300,000 annually. This figure significantly deviates from the $1 million threshold that the socialist Mayor Mamdani previously championed.
In addition, the DSA-NYC is rallying political figures to impose taxes on New Yorkers inheriting over $250,000, as revealed in recent candidate questionnaires acquired by The Post.
Currently, New York State only levies an estate tax on estates exceeding $7.35 million in value.
Among other radical proposals, the party — which proudly claims Mamdani as a staunch supporter of its platform — is promoting measures such as:
DSA lawmakers have already failed trying to introduce legislation that would impose a 0.5% tax on trades in stocks, bonds and derivatives.
- Increasing taxes by a yet-to-be-determined rate on investment income from money-market accounts, government bonds and other assets.
- Curbing longstanding deductions on charitable contributions and mortgage interest.
- A new “wealth tax,” likely referring to the Fair Share Act under consideration by state legislators, that would green-light Mamdani’s proposed 2% surcharge on NYC millionaires.
- A new, yet-to-be-determined tax on any financial transaction.
Although not included in the questionnaires, the DSA taxman is also scheming to squeeze additional taxes out of New York married couples making more than $500,000 combined.
The DSA questionnaires prove the far-left faction wants to go after average New Yorkers — not just billionaires, said NYC Councilman Frank Morano.
“In New York City, someone making $300,000 isn’t a hedge-fund titan,” said the Staten Island Republican.
“It’s often a small business owner, a successful contractor, or a two-income professional family trying to afford a mortgage and raise kids.
“Now they want to tax inheritances starting at $250,000, punish investment income, and even curb deductions for charitable giving. That doesn’t just hit the wealthy. It hits the middle class, the upper-middle class, and the very people who already carry the tax burden in this city.”
DSA-backed pols who supported the measures in the questionnaires include Diana Morero, who won a special election last month to fill Mamdani’s former Queens assembly seat; Queens Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, who is running for Congress; Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is challenging Harlem-based Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat; and state Assembly candidates Conrad Blackburn, David Orkin and Samantha Kattan.
However, the inheritance-tax proposal proved to be too much for Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé, a card-carrying member of the DSA.
Ossé, who mulled a Congressional run last year, wrote in his questionnaire the tax’s threshold must be “much higher” than $250,000 to “avoid hurting working class Black homeowners in Bed-Stuy.”
“A generational family home, purchased for very little, could be valued at over a million dollars today, leaving Black working-class community members facing an unaffordable tax bill,” said Ossé, who in December dropped his bid to primary House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after Mamdani successfully lobbied the DSA not to endorse him.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo also ripped the proposed tax hikes.
“This isn’t ‘Tax the Rich’ anymore — it’s tax everyone who hasn’t already left New York,” he told The Post.
“New Yorkers are already struggling with affordability, and raising taxes on working and middle-class residents will only be a boon for moving companies. The answer is growing jobs and expanding our tax base — not socialist dogma that will only drive the very people our economy depends on out of state.”
The DSA-NYC did not return messages.