While California sees revolt by billionaires, Mamdani builds case to tax the rich more in New York

As prominent billionaires reduce their footprint in California amid a proposed wealth tax, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a Martin Luther King Jr Day address in Brooklyn to counter claims that higher taxes on wealthy residents would trigger an exodus, saying the city is already losing families at a far greater cost.

Speaking at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Monday, Mamdani said warnings about rich New Yorkers leaving the city ignored what he described as a tangible and damaging population decline already under way.

“When I speak about how the wealthiest in this city should pay a little bit more in taxes, I am often told about a potential exodus,” Mamdani said. “But why is there no focus on the exodus of fact?”

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Population loss and the cost of childcare

Mamdani cited data showing that between 2010 and 2019, New York City lost nearly 20 per cent of its population of Black children and teenagers. He framed the decline as the result of policy decisions rather than individual choice.

“For it was we as this city that did so,” he said, pointing to high childcare costs as a major factor forcing families out. He noted that the average cost of childcare stood at $26,000 a year, adding, “and that’s a good deal.

Addressing the annual MLK Day celebration, Mamdani described inequality as a defining contradiction of New York.

“While the city is wealthy beyond measure, it is also deeply unequal,” he said. “Some New Yorkers sleep in penthouses. Others sleep on the sidewalk below.”

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Throughout his speech, he linked his policy agenda to Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s focus on economic justice, arguing that civil rights without access to economic opportunity fall short.

“We cannot only speak of Dr. King’s legacy as if it is a legacy of rights that can be given to people,” he said. “It must also be a legacy of rights that those people can exercise themselves.”

Mamdani highlighted racial gaps in public services, saying few experience the consequences as closely “as Black New Yorkers in our city’s most bus-dependent areas.” He pointed to slow bus services, overcrowded classrooms and maternal health outcomes, noting that Black mothers are nine times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.

Funding childcare and taxing wealth

On policy measures, Mamdani pointed to a recent city-state agreement that will deliver more than $1 billion in funding for universal childcare, describing it as a crucial step in keeping families in the city.

He reiterated calls for the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay more in taxes to support equity programmes and wider public services, including his campaign pledge for free and fast buses.

Last week, he said his administration would continue pressing Albany as budget talks move forward, proposing a rise in the state’s corporate tax rate for large companies from 7.25 per cent to 11.5 per cent, alongside additional income taxes on residents earning more than $1 million a year.

Governor Kathy Hochul has ruled out tax increases on high-income earners in this year’s state budget, though she left open the possibility of changes to corporate income taxes. No increases were proposed in her State of the State address earlier this week.

California backdrop of billionaire pushback

Mamdani’s remarks came against a backdrop of high-profile wealth shifts in California. In recent weeks, entities linked to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have moved or shut down dozens of California limited liability companies, with several converted into Nevada entities. A trust tied to Page also bought a $71.9 million mansion in Miami.

The moves follow a proposed ballot measure backed by a healthcare union that would impose a one-time tax equivalent to 5 per cent of assets on Californians worth more than $1 billion, retroactively applying to those resident in the state as of January 1, with five years to pay.

Other wealthy figures, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and investor David Sacks, have also expanded operations outside California. Page and Brin’s combined net worth exceeds $518 billion, according to Forbes, though both retain homes and board roles connected to Google’s parent company, Alphabet.