Governor Hochul’s Deal with Mayor Mamdani Will Cause an Economic Death Spiral in NYC, Forcing All of Us to Flee the City

By: Assemblyman Michael Novakhov

Mamdani and Hochul are setting up New Yorkers for another round of painful tax increases, reckless overspending, and a dangerous return to the fiscal crises of the 1970s. The warning signs are already visible in the way Mamdani endorsed the Governor for reelection.

Mamdani’s public embrace of Hochul—after she signaled support for pushing ICE out of New York and picked former socialist City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her choice for lieutenant governor—strongly suggests that a post-election deal on rising the taxes and funding for socialist polices is already in place. It is now clear that Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are setting the agenda in Albany, City Hall, and the Democratic Party, not Hochul.

During Adrienne Adams’s four years as Speaker of the City Council, spending surged on socialist aligned-programs. The city’s $92 billion budget in 2021 increased by more than 20%—over $20 billion in four years—fueling higher costs, deeper deficits, and now higher taxes. The NY GOP has already ripped Hochul’s running mate, Adams, for backing non-citizen voting

Recent history shows how Hochul manages politically risky tax increases to trick the voters. During the last election cycle, the Governor delayed congestion pricing until after voters went to the polls—a move widely viewed as helping House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries secure more Democratic Congressional seats on Long Island.  Once the election was over last year, New Yorkers were suddenly paying nine dollars a day to enter Manhattan.

Now the same playbook is being deployed again. Major, unpopular tax hikes to finance Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the city’s 8-billion-dollar budget deficit are being quietly postponed until after Hochul secures reelection—when voters will no longer have a meaningful opportunity to block them.

The endorsement is proof that Mamdani’s antisemitic social radicals are in complete control of Hochul, the Democratic Party, and the entire NY government. In 2019, after the DSA-backed bloc gained control of the NY State Senate, lawmakers passed the no-bail law—sparking a crime surge that still leaves New York City’s crime rate roughly 25 percent higher than before its enactment. Today, the DSA—backed by antisemitic billionaires, Soros, Singham, and their international funding networks—organizes anti-Israel protests across the city, including one held just six days after October 7, where Mamdani was arrested while demanding a cease-fire before Israeli forces had even entered Gaza.

New Yorkers are already the highest taxed state in the nation. Electricity rates are nearly double those in much of the country. Our auto insurance rates are the highest in the nation. Property taxes, business fees, and subway and bus fares will rise every year Mamdani is in office. Meanwhile, states that New Yorkers are fleeing to, such as Florida and Texas, offer no state income taxes, cheaper energy, and lower business taxes. Every year, more residences and businesses join the 600,000 and trillion in financial businesses that have already fled the city. The NYC and NYS budget is $370B, up over 100% in the last decade, while the entire state of Florida, with four million more people than New York, has a budget of 115B. A recent Zogby poll shows that the reason NY has lost so much population, resulting in it having two fewer congressional seats in 2030, and less power in Washington.

Public safety is the other reason people are fleeing the city. Mamdani, who supports defunding the police, has refused to hire 5000 additional cops at a time when thousands of officers are fleeing the force because of his anti-police policies and his lack of respect for the NYPD. Mamdani rushed to visit a mentally ill suspect who charged a cop with a knife—while ignoring the officer, who was visibly in distress. He then used the incident to promote his vague “Department of Community Safety,” without explaining how the 1.2 billion he wants to spend on it would have stopped the attack.  His plan would let untrained 911 operators decide whether calls get a cop or a social worker—an experiment that already failed under Bloomberg, de Blasio, and Adams.

Mamdani has opposed changing bail laws that his critics link to rising crime, supported the appointment of a former inmate with no management experience to run the dangerous Rikers Island, and backs closing the facility in favor of smaller, borough-based jails projected to cost taxpayers up to $16 billion. Critics warn that the new facilities would house only a portion of the current jail population, raising concerns that thousands of detainees could be released into the community, further straining public safety.

With a 334% increase in antisemitic attacks in NYC, Mamdani hired Phylisa Wisdom to run the city’s Antisemitism Office, despite her long history of criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza and her leadership role in Yaffed, a group critical of traditional yeshiva education.  According to the NY Post, Wisdom posted on X that she was “floored” by a social media post condemning Hamas terrorists firing hundreds of rockets at civilian areas in the Jewish state.

A U.S. Senate panel recently opened an investigation into Mamdani’s administration, citing “serious concerns” over his rollback of an executive order addressing antisemitism and boycotts of Israel—moves that could jeopardize billions in federal funding for NY. Yet Mamdani and Hochul continue to ignore the mounting economic damage to New Yorkers from soaring budget deficits, uncontrolled socialist spending, shrinking federal support, and tax hikes. Instead of restoring fiscal discipline, they are pressing ahead with costly additional socialist policy experiments, including free bus programs, expanded migrant services, city-run grocery stores, and publicly funded gender-transition procedures. The result is a government more focused on political activism than financial responsibility, leaving working families and small businesses to absorb the costs and damage, as their quality-of-life declines.

Projected tax increases would fall far short of covering the staggering costs of expanding socialist programs, the revenue losses from federal cuts, and the ongoing flight of wealthy residents and major employers from the city. With Wall Street accounting for roughly 28% of city and state tax revenue, the prospect of financial activity shifting to the Texas stock exchange, scheduled to open this year, and other low-tax states, threatens New York’s economic foundation. Higher taxes and shrinking opportunities will only accelerate this exodus of wealth from NY, eroding the tax base and weakening the city’s ability to fund essential services. The inevitable result will be service cuts, declining quality of life, and a growing financial burden on middle-class families and small businesses—forcing those that can leave to leave, and resulting in a very expensive and dangerous city for those that can’t flee.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman said, “The alliance between socialist Mamdani and Governor Hochul will bankrupt New York City and make it unlivable. Mamdani’s influence over Hochul will lead to overspending on failed, expensive socialist policies, resulting in cuts in the NYPD and the fire department, making the city less safe. Reductions in sanitation services—combined with Mamdani’s inability to manage snow removal and garbage collection—could effectively shut down the city.”

Only a strong Republican Party can stop the socialist activists who now dominate New York City elections and government, as moderate Democrats are too afraid of primary challenges to push back. Without serious opposition, one-party Democratic control—now driven by radical socialists and antisemites—results in unchecked spending, hidden tax hikes, backroom damaging political deals like the tax hike, and wasteful policies guided by Mamdani’s Communist ideology rather than common sense. Republicans remain the only barrier to preventing the city and state’s decline. A vote to maintain Democratic dominance is not just a vote for higher taxes and failed socialist programs—it is a vote for bankruptcy, forcing us to leave NYC and our Jewish institutions.

The Democratic Party you grew up with is gone—replaced by socialist, antisemitic activists. If you are a traditional Democrat, you cannot support these radical and destructive policies. Blindly voting Democrat at this point is politically suicidal. Every voter must understand that Hochul’s alliance with Mamdani is reshaping the culture of a city that once offered refuge to our largely immigrant community when we fled antisemitism in our homelands.

Michael Novakhov is a NYS Assemblyman in the 45th district, including the neighborhoods of Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, Gravesend, Manhattan, and Brighton Beach.