Unions urge Hochul to tax the rich

New York City labor is calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to tax the rich. 

Nearly a dozen unions signed a letter sent to Hochul this week urging her to get behind revenue-raising measures proposed in the one-house budgets of the State Assembly and State Senate as well as other additional tax increases. Raising taxes on the state’s wealthy has been a key priority for Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America amid a $5.4 billion city budget gap, but Hochul has been resistant to the measures during a year she is campaigning for reelection.

Last week, however, Hochul proposed a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes valued at over $5 million that could raise $500 million a year for New York City, signaling some flexibility on tax increases. While appreciative of that proposal, the unions are calling for even more including a bump in the statewide corporate tax, the personal income tax, the city corporate tax and additional loophole closures and revenue-raising programs. 

“The agreement on a pied-à-terre tax in New York City was an important first step in negotiations but doesn’t address New Yorkers’ needs or municipal shortfalls,” the letter reads “At this pivotal moment in the budget process, New York’s leaders face a clear choice: Stand with working families confronting an escalating affordability crisis, or protect the ultra-wealthy and most profitable corporations that have long avoided paying what they owe.” 

A spokesperson for Governor Hochul did not provide a comment.

The signatories include District Council 37, and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, politically powerful establishment unions that had not publicly backed tax increases this year until the letter was released. Other unions that signed on are the New York State Nurses Association, Communication Workers of America District 1 and CWA Local 1180 as well as progressive-leaning unions like the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY, United Auto Workers Region 9A, the Committee of Interns and Residents-Service Employees International Union and Doctors Council SEIU.

Raising the statewide corporate tax rate to 9 percent, as proposed by the State Senate, increasing personal income taxes for those over $5 million and making three new brackets for those making between $10 million and $25 million, $25 million and $100 million, and over $100 million, as proposed by the State Assembly, as well as raising the city’s corporate tax rate over 10 percent, would altogether raise $6.75 billion a year, the unions wrote. By adjusting the NYS Pass Through Entity Tax, ending the gold bullion sales tax exemption and increasing the mansion tax could raise more than $3.5 billion more. 

“We urge legislative leaders to hold firm in support of these proposals and to ensure they remain intact through final negotiations,” the letter reads. “And we call on Governor Hochul to listen to the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who support a fairer tax system, not to the billionaire donors who benefit from the status quo. New Yorkers need you to deliver a budget that reflects their needs, values, and dignity — and that guarantees the ultra-wealthy and most profitable corporations pay what they owe.” 

UFT ABSENT

Other signatories include Local 153 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union and Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians.  

Notably absent from the letter’s long list of signatories is the United Federation of Teachers, a large union that is pushing for expensive changes to the Tier 6 retirement plan in this years’ state budget and that has previously backed increasing taxes on the state’s wealthy. A spokesperson for the UFT did not respond to a request for comment asking why the union did not sign the letter.

A spokesperson for Mayor Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment on the unions' letter.

Over two-dozen community and advocacy groups, including the DSA lobbying front group Our Time that has been lobbying state lawmakers on taxing the rich, signed the letter as well.  

“Unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers, the legislature, and the majority of New Yorkers support taxing the rich in this year’s state budget to fund public needs – but the governor remains out of line with her constituents,” Batul Hassan, co-chair of NYC-DSA's Tax the Rich campaign and a member of the organization’s steering committee, said in a text. “Now it’s up to Gov. Hochul to deliver the popular and commonsense revenue raisers New Yorkers are demanding.”