Posted on 04/05/2026 6:35:45 AM PDT by Libloather
Instead of taxing the rich, Mayor Zohran Mamdani could fill nearly half of NYC’s projected $5.4 billion budget gap by simply collecting unpaid taxes and fines from deadbeats.
As of Feb. 28, the city was sitting on $1.1 billion in uncollected property taxes, according to the city Comptroller’s Office.
And it has also been unable to collect another $1.3 billion in Environmental Control Board fines usually issued for construction, zoning, and safety code violations, the Finance Department said.
In all, the uncollected taxes and fines total an astounding $2.4 billion.
That’s 44% of the amount Mamdani claims he needs to fill the massive budget hole while he continues threatening to slam Gotham with a nearly 10% property tax hike—unless Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany pols cave to his “tax the rich” scheme.
Council Speaker Julie Menin, who has been sparring politically with Mamdani over how to fill the budget deficit, said his administration should finally start taking advantage of a newly enacted law the Council approved that streamlines and simplifies how property tax debt is collected.
“Our Council overhauled the tax lien sale to create a fairer system that still delivers revenue and holds bad actors accountable,” she said.
“With over a billion outstanding, there’s no excuse for leaving that money on the table. The city should get the new program up and running to collect what’s owed.”
Mamdani’s spokesperson Dora Pekec fired back, “It is disingenuous for the Speaker to say that we should rush a tax lien sale.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
There may be a reason they can’t collect all these fines: the fees and fines drove the entities into bankruptcy?
“...reduce displacement of working-class homeowners across the five boroughs.”
I.e. they escaped the taxing jurisdiction.
Youre refering to Gregory Scarpa. But Scarpa didnt help the FBI locate the bodies of this 1964 murder. He helped them with a different civil rights case in 1966.
It was an anonymous tip that lead the FBI to the bodies. It was later discovered that that anonymous tipster was a highway patrolman who got the info from a klansman who learned about the bodies location from another klansman who is thought to have had a more direct hand in helping burying the bodies (he was acquitted of that charge).
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/journeytojustice/2014/06/22/mississippi-burning-mafia/11247987/
Amazing how your tax liability diminishes with the bribe to the right official.
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