NYC Mayor Announces Estate Tax Compromise [semi-satire]

Semi-News/Semi-Satire ^ | 15 March 2026 | John Semmens

[John Semmens]

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is urging the state government to reduce the estate tax exemption from its current $7 million threshold down to $750,000 and raise the tax rate on estates from its current 16% to 50%. "Ideally, there would be no private property," he said. "Why should a person who has stolen millions of dollars from the collective be allowed to pass any of it to his heirs. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx called for the abolition of private property. When a person dies all that he possesses should be seized by the government so it can be used for the benefit of the collective."

"Because I believe we cannot achieve this ideal in one swell foop, I am proposing that we use the well-accepted current tax structure and just modify where the liability will be imposed and the amount the state will need to take to move us closer to the ideal," the Mayor proposed. "Right now, the City needs money to implement our socialist agenda. There are grocery stores, transit, public housing, and welfare benefits that need to be funded. The rich can move out, but they can't take their homes and businesses with them. Taking a bigger bite out of their immobile wealth is the most effective way of bringing about total equality."

One middle-class resident complained "as an African-American homeowner, I think it's extremely unfair to most middle- and upper-middle-class New Yorkers to raise taxes, especially when incomes are not increasing in our current economic environment. The super-rich manage to skirt the tax by whatever means, and the middle-class continually carries the burden. It's the reason that so many have chosen to leave the State of New York and New York City."

Another resident asserted "I favor taxing the rich — the super-rich, but I'm not in favor of taxing middle-class working people. I own two properties, and I intend to give whatever is left to my children, not the government. We already pay more taxes now than what we should be."

Mamdani rejected these complaints, saying "by their own admission they show themselves to be too selfish. They have property. They have money. How can they justify not sharing it with a homeless person who has to sleep outdoors? I recognize that some homeless people are scary. That's why my plan to tax those who have more than they need and give the money to people who have less than they need is a safer, surer, and more convenient option than expecting individuals to be charitable. It is the obligation of those who have more than they need to fulfill the needs of those in want. It is the government's job to facilitate the transfer of this wealth through its power of taxation. I am the one who holds the moral high ground in this debate."

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TOPICS: Government; History; Humor; Politics
KEYWORDS: karlmarx; mamdani; satire; socialistagenda

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Link goes to GOPBreifingRoom.

[ridesthemiles]

UNLESS THEY ARE DRILLING FOR OIL OR MINING COAL/SILVER/ GOLD, ETC-—THEY CERTAINLY CAN TAKE THOSE BUSINESSES WITH THEM.

[PGR88]

Marxist-Islamist Mamdani in NY City demands NY State radically raise its inheritance tax

Its really time for Upstate to revive ideas of breaking NY state in 2 or 3 parts.

[srmanuel]

if the numbers talked about in the article are true and get turned into law, it would be the financial equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off.

A $750,000 estate is not large when built over a lifetime, especially in a state like NY. How many middle-class people who have lived in their house for 25-30 years and paid off their mortgages have a home that is valued at over $750,000, I would say it’s thousands if not 10s of thousands maybe more.

Anyone with a minimum amount of common sense would sell and get the heck out of NY and settle in a place like Florida that has an estate tax rate of zero.

[ChronicMA]

a note to Mamdani:

to change the law, find enough people to win seats in the state legislature to enact your ideas into law

And many of us will point out the silly laws these people support and will work to remove them

[Dalberg-Acton]

Mamdani’s attempt to educate NY voters with practical examples of the evils of Communism are wasted on the uneducable.

[butlerweave]

Mamdani will make all this money Vanish

[lastchance]

Let me guess. If you let them have the whole kitnkaboodle they’ll reduce your tax.

[fruser1]

I favor taxing the rich — the super-rich, but I'm not in favor of taxing middle-class

The epitome of the useful idiot.