Mayor Mamdani's Campaign Promise vs. Current Reality: "Freeze the Rent" to "Raise the Tax"

 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed a 9.5% across-the-board property tax rate increase as part of his preliminary FY 2027 budget. He framed it as a "last resort" to close a projected $5.4 billion budget gap if Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations. The hike would hit more than 3 million residential properties and over 100,000 commercial buildings, generating about $3.7 billion.

He said the exact words, "This will increase the rent." Instead, he called the property tax path "more harmful" and one that "places the onus... on the backs of working and middle-class New Yorkers." However, economists, landlords, and housing experts immediately pointed out the obvious: landlords will pass the higher costs to tenants through higher rents wherever possible. For rent-stabilized apartments, the burden could push some buildings toward distress or bankruptcy since regulated rents can't rise freely to offset it.

In his 2025 campaign, Zohran Mamdani made affordable housing the centerpiece of his platform. His slogan was blunt and popular: "Freeze the rent." He pledged a four-year rent freeze for nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, the construction of 200,000 new permanently affordable rent-stabilized units, cracking down on bad landlords, and making life easier for working New Yorkers crushed by the city's sky-high housing costs.

One day after unveiling his tax plan, Mamdani followed through on the first part of that promise. He appointed six new members to the Rent Guidelines Board, the panel that sets annual rent adjustments for stabilized units, signaling he intends to deliver the freeze he campaigned on.

Yet on Tuesday, the same mayor released a $127 billion preliminary budget that includes a 9.5% property tax increase, the first broad-based hike in over two decades. He called it painful but necessary if Albany won't tax millionaires and corporations more. The message to homeowners and landlords: pay up or else.

New Yorkers facing another potential rent spike after years of skyrocketing costs may be wondering: how did the candidate who vowed to freeze the rent end up proposing a tax that could thaw it?

The final budget won't be adopted until spring. In the meantime, the mayor's "last resort" has become this week's headline, and a stark illustration of how campaign promises meet fiscal reality in one of America's most expensive cities.