On November 4 last year, Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayoral election on a promise to make the city more affordable, with expanded social programmes funded in part by raising taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents and most profitable corporations.
Nearly a year since his upset victory, he has secured one major piece of that agenda: a surcharge on high-end second homes. He also continues to push for higher corporate and income taxes.
The proposals have intensified criticism of Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, with opponents arguing that his approach to taxing the wealthy amounts to “socialism in action”.