Religious leaders are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to back New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to “tax the rich” to ease financial burdens on their congregations.
In letter to Hochul and legislative leaders, the coalition of clerics representing Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish congregations in the New York City area said working class families are still struggling under the city’s high cost of living as the Mamdani administration wrestles with a $5.4 billion budget shortfall “caused by years of mismanagement.”
“There are few ways to close a $5.4B budget gap without difficult sacrifices — and that is why we write to you, to say that working New Yorkers, our parishioners, should not have to suffer the consequences of closing this budget gap,” they wrote.
“Leaders in Albany have a choice and an obligation,” they said. “We urge you to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations, those who can afford to pay a little more.”
The religious leaders said the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, has “cut the ultra-wealthy a huge break” but also put a drain on the city’s resources through cuts in federal funding and rollbacks of health care and public assistance benefits.
