Mamdani BANKRUPTS NYC's Middle Class... Voters STORM City Hall, DEMAND RESIGNATION

Some people are starting to get nervous about a tax hike that the mayor says is supposed to be a backup plan to taxing the rich.

Find another way. There's gotta be another way.

So, betrayed New Yorkers are taking to the streets and to the steps of City Hall to protest the mayor's new tax increases, which he promised would only affect the rich, but now appears squarely aimed at working-class voters already struggling with an affordability crisis. So the mayor can fund his swath of free programs which will be open to just about everyone, even if they're in America without permission. And as this takes shape, some people are predicting New York City's experiment with communism is gonna

transform this place permanently.

Tenants, local officials and organizations alike took to the steps of City Hall with a clear message. It comes weeks after Mayor Zoran Mamdani put out a plan to close a $5.4 billion gap in the city's budget.

That's why Campbell was among the dozens of homeowners in Southeast Queens who turned out for what they say was an emergency response to the mayor.

Do your job as mayor and leave our taxes out.

This is coming from someone who has never had to fight for anything in his life, who grew up in privilege and wealth.

There's no restraint.

They just come to us as if we're an ATM machine. She says the Mamdani tax hike, if it comes to fruition, will affect her tenants too.

It's going to make it much harder for me to replace a boiler. Instead I'm going to repair it, patch a roof instead of replacing a roof.

You are giving only two options. You're saying if we don't tax the rich, then I got to increase property taxes.

It will put us in a hole and we will be at a deficit.

So as we talk about all the stuff the mayor wants to pay for, it looks like the industrial fraud complex has no plans to let go of New York anytime soon. And what nobody's talking about is that endless funding for free programs that are open to the entire world have set New York City on a course it may never correct from.

And while this may have started with the asylum crisis that saw hundreds of thousands of folks moved into luxury hotels with all their bills paid for, this created an entire industry dedicated to receiving government money in ways that had never been possible before. And that industry is now so large, it's self-sustaining.

Because the more money you give out, the more people who are negatively affected. If you stop giving that money out, which means we've just got to give out more and more and more, you see? At the same time, nothing is being done to help New Yorkers live here on their own, and the statistics are shocking. A record 350,000 are currently homeless, and one out of every three New Yorkers spends more than half their income on rent.

And when you add to that super expensive milk at the grocery store, there just isn't any room left in people's budgets for the mayor's plans. Which brings us to the real reason people are on the steps of City Hall protesting. Tax increases! These are people who think that if they have to pay for one more thing, that's it. They're gonna have to leave and they might be right. But here's the bad news for all of the folks who are upset and

feel betrayed by the mayor. Even if these property hikes get postponed, nobody wants to admit the number of millionaires here is finite and shrinking fast. Which means these taxes we're hearing about today, they're just gonna come back tomorrow. On top of that, if you're gonna hike up the rates for rich people to live here These are the people who own businesses and rent out apartments. How are they gonna get their money back?

They're gonna pass it on to their customers one way or the other which means the affordability equation here doesn't really change But wait, maybe New Yorkers are getting something back Which is better than what they're being asked to put in. Maybe this is gonna be a great thing and the city's best days are ahead of it.

What we are rolling out today is for parents of two-year-olds in the neighborhoods that we have listed no matter the amount of money they make, the occupation they have, their immigration status, so long as they live there they can apply. The application process will become open sometime in early summer.

Awesome. Government-funded childcare programs that are being rolled out as quickly as possible, paid for by every single person who lives here. What could go wrong?

Going to a lot of these daycare centers, we're trying to find a spot for our little boy Joey, but we thought maybe we could check him in the autism center. Because none of the daycare centers are open. Yeah, and how many kids you guys have at this autism center? My name is Nick we're doing a little documentary trying to find a little Joey a spot to put himself in one of these centers here

As America has learned recently these types of programs They might not attract the children the programs are designed for, but because this is America's largest sanctuary city and has billions of dollars to just dole out, no other city has that. And for that reason, some people think the fraud here is going to get even worse than what

we've seen even in places like Minnesota. Okay, so here's a connection that you really need to understand.

As you just heard Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say, everyone can sign up for these new programs in New York, no matter what their status is in the country. Now that's because New York is a sanctuary city. These politicians, they think they're being very generous. But one of the ways that state auditors in Minnesota were able to catch fraud was they realized that the number of daycares greatly eclipsed the population, right?

There was a major imbalance in some places and they figured out, gee, hey, Governor Tim, should we look at this stuff? He did say no, by the way. But if you've got a sanctuary city with hundreds of thousands of people living in it

who are undocumented, how do you prove there are or are not too many childcare facilities? You can't, which means the city is setting itself up to spend unlimited amounts of money on something that is already out of control.

Free daycare for two year olds this fall.

We're expecting a second kid on the way. And so universal two care means that we are going to be able to afford to stay in New York.

Alongside Governor Hochul Tuesday, Mayor Mamdani announced the first 2,000 2K seats.

It will place at least $20,000 per child back in the pockets of parents across our city and will make it possible for countless parents to return to the careers they love.

Wait a second, there's only 2,000 seats. I can count the number of parents who are gonna be able to return to the careers they love, 2,000. And we got a city of 8 million people who are expected to pay for this stuff. And that's the whole problem with communism

that New York City is about to learn hard and fast. An unlimited amount of money is required to dole out specific things to a select group of people, a finite group of people. You see you have a finite outcome which requires unlimited resources. This is a big problem. Not to mention if you do not have children and you live in New York City

and your rent goes up because your landlord's getting hit to pay for this stuff, your life just got harder. You receive zero benefit from this. And because these are daycares, child cares, the mayor has just signaled to the entire industrial fraud complex in America that the best thing you can do if you want to live affordably in New York is to come here right now and build a daycare, set it up, do it fast, money's coming.

Tenants, local officials and organizations alike took to the steps of City Hall with a clear

message. Find another way. There's gotta be another way. There is. It comes weeks after

Mayor Zoran Momdani put out a plan to close a $5.4 billion gap in the city's budget. Mayor Momdani says the first option would be a 2% tax increase on the city's top earners and corporations. But, if that falls through, the second option would be a 9.5% property tax increase, the mayor previously emphasizing the latter as a last resort.

How do you close a spending problem by not saving money? You've got all this money that you're worried where's it going to come from? Why does it need to come from anywhere? Why don't we just not spend the money? Well the answer to that is the industrial fraud complex in the country learned its lesson. They better go to a place where it's easier to hide and where there's actually more money

available. And that's because scaling back these programs is not on the table. $20,000 per child, that's insane money going into the pockets of people running daycares. Meanwhile, no plan has been put forth

to check on these places and make sure they're actually full of children, but oh, we're gonna fund them. And what are we gonna get in exchange from that? How is this gonna help the affordability equation for people who go to the grocery store

and see milk that they can't afford, or see eggs they can't even afford to buy? Prices, which by the way, are higher here than anywhere else because of all the fees these businesses like your grocery store already have to pay. It's cheaper to buy food in places like New Jersey. That's why

there's people that every weekend they leave New York and they go to New Jersey to buy their food and they come back. That's how much cheaper it is. That falls through. The second option would be a

9.5% property tax increase. The mayor previously emphasizing the latter as a last resort.

This is something that we do not want to do, and this is something that we are going to utilize every single option to

ensure does not come to pass. But in order for the first plan to work, it would need the governor's support. 12 previously reported, though. Governor Kathy Hochul agreed to increase funding but was in opposition

to the first plan.

She gave money for this plan B. Feel more like a plan A for ralliers. It will put us in a hole.

We will be at a deficit because most of the people where we live in Canarsie, we are retirees and we on a fixed income.

That's Maria.

Wow, okay. So people are on fixed incomes and even if you're not a retiree, your job isn't giving you a 10% raise every year. Let's just put it that way. Plus, the cost for homeowners might be even worse than what we're being told.

We have to pay flood insurance and our flood insurance is up, you know, since Sandy.

News 12 previously reported that Mayor Mamdani assigned chief of saving officers in different departments to see if there were any ways to cut costs. Yeah, they didn't find anything. previously reported that Mayor Momdani assigned chief of saving officers in different departments

to see if there were any ways to cut costs. Yeah, they didn't find anything. But you know what building owners are finding out is that the cost to run their dilapidated building that just keeps creeping up and up and up and up and up every single year it gets tougher. The fuel to fuel the building because landlords are required to provide hot water, cold water and heat. Well, the boiler that costs more money to fill up, it costs more money to repair when it breaks

and every single thing that goes into an apartment, all those old radiators, the air conditioners, the lighting, everything, all that stuff keeps going up too. So the cost to operate these buildings goes up. Now they're all gonna get hit with a property tax increase. This is nightmare news for renters

and they don't even know it.

But noticeably absent from phase one is Staten Island.

Oh!

Last week we were left out in the snow.

This week we're left out in the cold.

Borough President Vito Fussella says after his residents waited days for snow plows to clear parts of Staten Island

following last week's blizzard, they will now wait longer than the other boroughs for 2K.

Why?

But if there was a plan to put these things in place, shouldn't that have been a negotiation, a conversation to try to identify locations?

Mayor Mamdani says this first phase is a result of partnerships with existing child care providers.

Oh!

These determinations were made in part on a reflection of which neighborhoods had those providers ready to go before the end of this year.

Oh! So listen to that! We're gonna roll out citywide child care but your neighborhood doesn't get it if we don't think you have enough providers already. So forget the industrial fraud complex. If that hasn't come to your neighborhood yet we're not gonna spend any money. Now of course not every daycare in the city the industrial fraud complex. If that hasn't come to your neighborhood yet, we're not gonna spend any money. Now, of course, not every daycare in the city is fraudulent.

Of course not, but everybody in New York voted for all this free stuff. They said, you know what? We want all this free stuff. We love it. It sounds great.

We got an affordability problem. Let's get the free childcare. Let's get the free grocery stores. But then when it's time to roll out those free programs people say, hey, wait a second. We wanted free grocery stores in every single neighborhood at once. What do you mean? There's only the first free grocery stores going over there and I got to pay for it. Or the first free child cares are over here and you want me to pay for it. That's not what I vote for.

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Yes, it is how it works.

And also as a reflection of economic need.

Applications for the first 2,000 seats will open this summer.

It's going to fill up quick.

Them 2,000 seats are going to be gone.

They're like fascinated by them. It is a moth to a flame, I'm telling you. Constantly. So what about Staten Island? Will this program eventually be offered to those folks in that borough? Yes, Christine.

So this is just phase one of what with 2000 seats for this fall.

But here's the problem with that. All of this is being done to solve the affordability problems every single resident in New York City is facing at once. And if you have to pay for something today and it is eventually gonna show up in a few months, in a few years, your affordability equation just got worse and you get absolutely nothing for it at the exact same time there's only 2,000

seats in the program here which means everyone pays for something not everyone has access to. That is not affordability.

Taxes were $2,800. Now they're $11,000. Well, a Donnie tax hike would mean another hike of over $1,000 and he's furious.

This is coming from someone who has never had to fight for anything in his life, who grew up in privilege and wealth. So of course, raising property taxes on rich people, you know, such as himself, isn't much of a burden.

I'm not so sure about that. And of course, there are two small Westside buildings, which each have 10 apartments.

There's no restraint. They just come to us as if we're an ATM machine.

She says the Mamdani tax hike, if it comes to fruition, will affect her tenants too.

It's going to make it much harder for me to replace a boiler instead I'm going to repair and patch a roof instead of replacing a roof. Those are the kinds of decisions you have to make when you know 40 percent of your rent roll is going to the city and property taxes.

40 percent of the income from renting out apartments goes to the city. That means if you have a building with 10 apartments, four of those apartments you effectively collect nothing on. You got to run the whole building on the rent from the other six and repair it. And if you can't do that, what happens? You have to raise the rent.

And you know something, the dirty little secret here, this landlady that we've got on the news, her taxes are going up either way and it's her job to rent apartments because that's what she does for a living. If she's a millionaire, she's getting hit with the tax when it applies to millionaires. If she's not a millionaire, she's getting hit with the property tax. So one way or the other, she has to raise

the costs for people to live in her building. And let's say she wasn't an apartment owner. Let's say she owned spaces that had commercial tenants. Well, the property tax hits them too. So you got some business, some restaurant you enjoy eating at. Well, guess what?

Their rent's going up too. If you got some business that sells little products that you like to buy, little trinkets that you like to go out and buy in New York, a little souvenir shop or something. Guess what? Those are gonna cost more too because their rent's going up. More painful. The mayor and Governor Kathy

Hochul are digging in on their differences over what he wants from her.

To increase taxes on the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations.

And what she says in return. I don't support a property tax

increase on New Yorkers and I'm not wavering from my position.

It's an unusual dance playing out between the two Democrats who have endorsed one another. The governor has already committed billions to plug the budget hole and help the mayor keep his free childcare pass. But reasonable New Yorkers can wonder why Mayor Mamdani isn't changing his tune, even threatening to raise property taxes by 9.5% if the state

refuses to tax the rich. And this is after the governor promised all the money necessary to pay for these programs for the next few years. And you know what this signals? This signals that the true nature of what this is all going to cost is bigger than anyone can possibly imagine. At the exact same time, this number 9.5%, it's being teased now as a nuclear option. Mayor says he doesn't wanna do it.

Well, guess what? In a few years, or in a few months, when these plans don't work out and the mayor comes back with a 4.25% tax, instead he's gonna say, yeah, well, you know, hey, it's half what we were asking for before.

And we have this entire fight right now over these communist plans to roll out programs that everybody pays for and only a few people get, and guess what, there's not enough money for it. And there never will be. That's why we have a $5.8 billion budget gap.

To begin with, this place is on a collision course with bankruptcy and nobody wants to stop it. People are trying to accelerate it. At the same time what are we told about these programs that everybody has to pay for? We're told that they make New York City stronger. Well how do they do that? How is New York City stronger when everyone has to pay more for something that only a few people have access to? How is that better for us? And I get that these programs are sold as an investment, but guess what? If you own a building and it's falling apart

and you have to repair the foundation so the place doesn't collapse, you could say, okay, the foundation is gonna cost this much to repair. It's gonna last, you know, 20 years before I got to do it again.

And this is how much I need to raise rents. And I can figure out exactly when my investment's gonna pay off, but all these free programs that are magnets for fraud, when do they pay off? How do we do that calculation to figure out when everyone's gonna get their money back and when the world's gonna be a happy, magical place?

We can't. I don't see how this is gonna work. I don't see how there are gonna be people whose lives are made better off from it. whose lives are made better off from it. Maybe I'm wrong, what do you think?