Mamdani's Fiscal Snowball | If you're two months into your mayoralty and one of your biggest scandals is a snowball fight in Washington Square Park, I'd say things are going relatively well. In Zohran Mamdani's New York, the streets are plowed. The sidewalks are shoveled. The snow sculptures are cheerful. Of course, there's always room for improvement, see: danger soup. But the mayor's hands-on response to the city'srecent snowstorm has been met with mostly rave reviews, despite lighthearted chuckles over his "socialist snow corps." But governing is relatively easy when the stakes are snow days and snowballs. What about when the stakes are higher — say, free day care? When it comes to child care, Allison Schrager worries Mamdani is flirting with fiscal nihilism. In her eyes, the mayor's plan to tax high earners and corporations to provide families with free services starting when a child is 6 weeks old is "poorly structured" and "may cause serious economic damage." "New York City already spends a fortune on its residents, and provides subpar services," she writes. "With its existing obligations and variable tax revenue, increasing the budget another 9% is certainly imprudent, to put it mildly." In the event that Mamdani is unable to secure the tax, Allison says all New Yorkers may need to foot the bill — "in the form of higher property taxes now and, later, a bailout of the pension and health-care funds he plans to raid." Such taxes will likely lack salience, Allison warns. "Politicians have become addicted to promising more benefits — tax credits, health-care subsidies, now child care — that someone else pays for," she writes. "Often the middle class ends up paying anyway. The cost of corporate taxes, for example, are largely borne by workers, but most people don't realize why their wages are lower." Mamdani may have beat the blizzard, but this amounts to a fiscal storm he might not be ready for. Bonus Tax Reading: Tax receipts are up, which means inequality is too. — Justin Fox Well, folks! Can't say I didn't warn ya: If you took my advice and didn't listen to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, good for you!! I envy your good night's sleep. If you didn't take my advice, welcome to the club! I failed to heed my own warnings and chose to listen to 107 minutes of … what, exactly? For the life of me I can't remember, but there was one moment when my ears perked up: "Chickenbutterfruit." For a brief second, I was confounded by the idea of such a food item, but upon relistening, it was actually just "chicken, butter, fruit" quickly rattled off with little air between the words. Here's the full quote: The cost of chicken, butter, fruit, hotels, automobiles, rent is lower today than when I took office by a lot. Even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly. Just hold on a little while. We are getting it down and soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago.
Hmmm. Asking your voters to "hold on a little while" seems like a tall order, especially with midterms on the horizon. Nia-Malika Henderson agrees: "The economy as Americans experience it is much more complicated, with some prices on everyday goods rising since Trump took office and some declining." Although the president actually did what his party has been begging him to do for the better half of a year — give a speech focused on affordability — she says his talk of "the golden age of America" was at odds with economic reality. Read the whole thing. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment