November 5, 2025 • 19 mins
Zohran Mamdani clinched New York City’s mayoral race by campaigning against wealth inequality and promoting affordability. Now, he faces the challenge of delivering on the promises that got him elected while coming to the table with the city’s wealthiest residents, who have an outsized influence on the city’s politics, economy and revenue.
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder is joined by Bloomberg reporters Emily Flitter and Fola Akinnibi and speaks with Kathryn Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City, which represents the interests of the city’s business community. They discuss what Mamdani’s victory means for Wall Street and how he plans to win over the 1 percent.
Read more:
- Wall Street Drops Fear of ‘Hot Commie Summer’ in Overture to Mamdani
- Allow Zohran Mamdani to Reintroduce Himself
- New York’s Golden Handcuffs: Why the City Has a Special Hold on the Rich
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My vision for New York City in twenty twenty five
looks like Saran Mandani.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
New Yorkers across the city went to the polls Tuesday
to cast their ballots for mayor. On Manhattan's Upper East Side.
We spoke to voters motivated by a wide range of issues.
Mamdani is very like pro immigrant, pro LGBTQ plus community.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
The biggest thing for me has been corruption that I've seen.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
But New York City is too big a city for
somebody to run that has never had a full time
real job.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No one's getting free groceries, and no one's getting free
runt it does. More than two million New Yorkers came
out to vote for mayor, something that hasn't happened since
nineteen sixty nine, and when the results came in, more
than fifty percent of voters went for Zoran Mamdani, the
thirty four year old Democratic socialist whose platform was laser
focused on one key issue, affordability.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Tonight, you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate
for a new kind of politics, a mandate for.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
A Mamdanni won every borough but Staten Island He won
in precincts that were majority Black and majority Hispanic, and
precincts where most residents were renters and public transit users. Now,
as mayor elect, Mamdanni faces a new challenge governing a
city of eight and a half million people, including the
(01:40):
vocal minority of New York's wealthiest who opposed him and
poured millions into political action groups trying to defeat him.
Mamdani has been unapologetic and steadfast in his message that
many of the city's problems are rooted in income inequality,
and in his victory speech billionaires were part of what
he said had gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
We will put an end to the culture of corruption
that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and
exploit tax breaks, but with.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Their outsized influence on the city's politics, economy, and revenue.
Mam Donnie has also tried to make peace with the
cities one percent, and there are signs that several of
those big name high net worth skeptics are already coming around.
Last month, Jamie Diamond, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase,
said at a conference led by Fortune magazine that he
(02:33):
was ready to work with Mam Donnie if he won.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If he becomes mayor, I will call him an or
for my help.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Does may not agree with him?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And at a news conference today, Mam Donnie said he's
ready to sit down with people like Diamond too.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
So I look forward to having those kinds of meetings,
be it with Jamie Diamond or be it with other
business leaders, and continuing to show that our affordability agenda
is an agenda that would also benefit businesses across the city.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from
Bloomberg News today. On the show, New York City's uber
wealthy tried to stop or on mam Donnie's rise. Now
they're processing his victory. Can Mamdani come to the table
with billionaires and business leaders while delivering on the policies
and principles that got him elected? New York New York
(03:30):
the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, and the
city where money never sleeps.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
This is a really great place to get rich.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Emily Flitter covers economic and social inequality for Bloomberg. She says,
from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty three, the city minted
nine thousand new million dollar earners, a rate of three
per day. By twenty twenty three, there were almost thirty
five thousand New Yorkers making a million or more a year.
But if New York is a good place to get rich,
(04:03):
it's an even better place to get richer.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
The billionaires who already live in New York City saw
their combined net worth grow ninety percent in the last
nine years.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Mam Donnie ran on a platform highlighting the fact that
along with that growing wealth has come a growing wealth divide.
Here he is on NBC's Meet the Press in June.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly,
it is so much money in a moment of such inequality.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
New York City has some of the deepest income inequality
in the country. According to an analysis of census data
by the Center for New York City Affairs, the top
twenty percent of New Yorkers have total incomes thirty three
times larger than the bottom twenty percent, and Mam Donnie's
campaign promised to tax those at the top to provide
more public services for everyone.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The sort of three pillars of his campaign are fast
and free buses, freezing the rent, and free childcare for
children between six weeks and five years.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Old.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Bloomberg City Lab reporter Fola Akinneby recently profiled Mam Donnie
for BusinessWeek and looked at why his campaign caught on.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It speaks to the underlying stress and the underlying weight
of the conditions in the city. Right And when you
look at at the same time the stock market doing
what it's doing, and folks at the top getting wealthier,
and you see a federal push sit to cut.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Taxes, and the number of millionaires in the city has
grown as grown as well.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I think people start asking questions about where they fit in.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
But as Mom Donnie campaigned on affordability for all, he
also tried to win over the cities one percent in
New York. That's people making at least nine hundred thousand
dollars a year. They're a big driver of the city's
economy because of how much money they pay an income
and property taxes. Mam Donnie recognized that a path to
(05:54):
victory in New York included getting them on board, so
he reached out to Catherine During.
Speaker 7 (06:01):
The year before the primary election, I had met with
Zoran a few times, had introduced him to a couple
business leaders.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Catherine is the president and CEO of the Partnership for
New York City, a trade group representing the city's largest
employers across industries like real estate and banking.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
Although there was not, frankly, a lot of interest in
his candidacy in the business community, no one had basically
ever heard of him. If they had, it was that
he was a socialist and a marginal character.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
After mam Donnie's dramatic primary win, that changed, Catherine set
up a series of meetings between Mamdani and the city's
business leaders to talk about their visions.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
For the city.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Which policy areas have been most concerning or divisive to
business leaders, and where are there areas of agreement.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
So I think in general their areas of agreement are
that there is an affordability crisis in this city and
that we need to bring costs down, and disagreement on
how do we solve that, with the business community thinking
we do not solve that by increasing government spending, because
(07:16):
that will just put a new tax burden on everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Many business leaders viewed mom Donnie with skepticism, thinking he
was young and relatively inexperienced. Some believed his proposals were
unrealistic or even posed a fundamental threat to their financial interests,
and Catherine said people in her network also had other concerns.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
One source of great concern is coming from members of
the Jewish community that feel the strong importance of the
Jewish homeland. The other areas are in terms of support
for charter schools, mayoral control of the schools, most importantly
public safety.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Big name, wealthy New Yorkers largely backed former New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo. A Bloomberg News analysis found that pro
Cuomo and anti mam Donnie PAX raised over twenty six
million dollars between the June primary and yesterday's election, fueled
by donations from investors like Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb,
as well as Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority
(08:17):
owner of Bloomberg LP.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
There's been a lot of outside money flowing into this race,
and when you look at the advertisements and the messages
that are coming from these outside groups, these outside packs,
they've been pretty dark pictures of what the city could
look like under mayor mam Donnia. They say that, like
you know, crime is going to spike and the city
is going to change.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Mam Donni won't be able to achieve his key affordability
proposals alone, because the city doesn't fully control its own
per strengths. He's proposed paying for things like free buses
and universal childcare with increased corporate and income taxes. But
the power to set those tax rates and the operation
of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is held in the state's capital, Albany, so.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Free buses would require likely some money from the MTA.
That the campaign puts a cost it around seven hundred
million dollars a year. The city has one hundred and
sixteen billion dollar budget. The city might be able to
afford it on its own, but he again would probably
need some state funding for that. Universal childcare is a
huge it's a massive undertaking. We're talking about six seven
million dollars a year, and it's also something that could
(09:24):
not be stood up, you know, in one year overnight,
right like something's going to take years now. Governor Cathy
Hoko in the past has said that she is not
open to raising taxes, and she has her own election
to look forward to in twenty twenty six. At the
same time, I think Mom Donnie's calculation here is that
all these people can be pushed and you know, funny enough.
(09:45):
If you look at Hoko's appearance at this Mom Donny
rally that was about a week or two ago, she
was heckled when she came on to stage. People were
chanting tax the rich, tax the rich, and she equivocater,
all right, I can hear you.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Hoko later said on a podcast that she still didn't
plan to raise taxes, but that she was hearing people's voices.
Catherine Wilde says the business community, meanwhile, sees tax hikes
as a non starter.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
Personal and corporate tax increases are great concerns since we're
the highest tax city in the country. So a New
Yorker today, in a middle or upper middle income family,
fifty five percent of their paycheck goes to the government
in state, federal, and city taxes. And if you go
(10:33):
to Florida or Texas or Tennessee, you end up paying
thirty eight percent because they don't have state and local
income taxes. We just saw a two point six billion
dollar increase in state tax revenues because of Wall Street bonuses.
We do not want to lose those bonuses. We want
them to stay right here.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
How would the business leaders like to see Mom Donnie
address some of those key affordability issues, if not by
raising taxes or going to the state for more money.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
By reducing the size of government. We have three hundred
thousand employees of New York City government, the most in history.
I think that the city spending is mostly on labor,
and those expenses have gone up more than fifty percent
over the past decade. So I think most people in
(11:21):
the private sector think we could get along with less government.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
The fear that wealthy New Yorkers might leave if they're
tax too much or if the city isn't run in
the way they want is one that mum donnie's critics
repeated in the lead up to the election. In late October,
Bill Ackman posted on x that mumdannie's quote anti business policies,
including higher corporate taxes, will kill NYC jobs and cause
(11:47):
companies to flee. And here's the Heritage Foundation. Stephen Moore
on Fox Business News in September.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
If mcdonnie wins, Wall Street will no longer be located
in Manhattan, it will move.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So now that mom donnie's one is Wall Street moving
to Florida. That's after the break. If New York's billionaires
(12:21):
and multimillionaires were to pack up and leave tomorrow, it
would have a big impact on the city's finances. The
top one percent of earners account for forty percent of
the city's eighteen billion dollars in annual income tax revenue,
and the homes they own and offices they run or
work for rack up a lot of real estate taxes,
(12:41):
covering a large proportion of the city's thirty four billion
dollars in annual property levies. But Bloomberg's Emily Flitter says
those big real estate investments are also part of the
reason that it isn't so easy for the city's corporations
to quit New York. Barclay's just announced plans to invest
a billion an office tower in Times Square. JP Morgan's
(13:03):
new Park Avenue building fits ten thousand employees.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
That's not something that any of these owners or investors
in real estate can just pick up and walk away with.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Sure, there are plenty of financial professionals who've already been
lured to South Florida, earning it the nickname Wall Street South,
But Emily says, when it comes to earning potential and
lifestyle potential, New York wins every time.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
In twenty twenty, four Wall Street South financial industry employees
earned one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars on average,
whereas if you were working in finance in Manhattan last year,
you earned an average of four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars.
And I'm actually I'm from Miami. I love Miami, so
(13:54):
I don't want to be dissing Miami, but it just
doesn't have as much stuff as New It has fewer
fancy restaurants, it doesn't have as many really high end schools.
And let me just point out that the biggest corporate
move to South Florida has been from Chicago. Citadel moved
(14:17):
to Miami, Ken Griffin moved down there. But Ken Griffin
just announced that Citadel is going to invest a lot
of money so that they can enhance their presence in
New York.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Emily says, if you really want to know how New
Yorkers might react to a tax increase, you can look
back to what happened after New York increased its top
personal income tax rates in twenty twenty one from eight
point eighty two percent to nearly eleven percent for the
highest earners overall.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
The data showed that people did not leave New York
in significant numbers because of the tax hikes. It's as
simple as.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
That, and well.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Catherine Wilde, the head of the Partnership for New York City,
cautions that higher taxes could make the city less competitive.
She says, the fears about Mom Donnie have been overblown.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
Certainly. I don't think people who are knowledgeable are going
to pick up and leave before they know that something
really devastating is going to happen, and there's no indication
that that's the case. Much of the rhetoric around this
mayoral election have suggested that a Mom Donnie victory will
(15:30):
result in the city falling into deep decline, that it
will be like the nineteen seventies. People should know that
if the budget in the city goes out of whack.
We have a financial control Board, which is run by
the governor, the state Controller, private sector representation they take over.
The mayor has no control over increasing income or corporate taxes.
(15:55):
The mayor has some control over real estate taxes, but
Mam Donnie has already said that he wants to reduce
real estate taxes where possible. Last spring, he was talking
about I'm going to freeze the rent. We asked the question,
how are you going to freeze the rent if you
don't freeze the costs? How are you going to continue
(16:16):
to encourage investment in rental housing if you don't have
some incentives financial incentives for that investment. He has now
incorporated into his freeze the rent plan a plan to
reform property taxes. So that's an example where I have
(16:37):
seen him incorporate the feedback he's gotten and now seems
prepared to take a more comprehensive and practical view of
that issue.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Catherine says. Another example of Mom Donnie's openness to compromise
was his decision to keep Police Commissioner Jessica Tish in
her position if you want. Is it fair to say
that one of the takeaways of this conversation at least
his Wall Street don't panic.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
Absolutely. My message would be, don't panic, but be prepared
to roll up your sleeves and help our next mayor
solve the affordable crisis, which will be good for business,
for Wall Street and for the residents of New York City.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
As Mom Donnie enters, Gracie Manson, buoyed by the support
of a diverse coalition of New Yorkers, Bloomberg City Labs,
Fola Kennedy says, Mam Donnie will continue to walk this
fine line. Can he come to the table for compromises
with big business while staying true to the values that
have made him so popular.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I think that's what's going to define his administration, right,
like whether he's able to sort of like thread some
of these needles.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I'm wondering whether you think the business community was caught
off guard by the rise of Mom Donnie and what
they should take away from the way that he's resonated
with voters.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I think a lot of people were cut off guard
by Mam Donny's rise, and it speaks to again how
much his message of affordability is resonated. This is a
guy that throughout the campaign has stuck to that talking point.
If you ask him any question, he always returned to
affordability as part of his answer to the question, and
I think it shows the power of that kind of messaging.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Already, it seems like Wall Street is coming around. Bill Ackman,
the billionaire investor who'd been warning of an imminent exodus
of the wealthy if Mom Donnie won, posted on X
last night tagging Mom Donnie quote congrats on the win.
Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC,
just let me know what I can do. And even
(18:37):
President Donald Trump, speaking earlier today, followed up criticism of
mom Donnie by saying, we want New York to be successful.
We'll help him a little bit. Maybe this is the
Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. To get
more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all
(18:57):
of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg dot com
slash podcast offer. If you liked this episode, make sure
to follow and review The Big Take wherever you listen
to podcasts. It helps people find the show. Thanks for listening.
We'll be back tomorrow.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
My vision for New York City in twenty twenty five
looks like Saran Mandani.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
New Yorkers across the city went to the polls Tuesday
to cast their ballots for mayor. On Manhattan's Upper East Side.
We spoke to voters motivated by a wide range of issues.
Mamdani is very like pro immigrant, pro LGBTQ plus community.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
The biggest thing for me has been corruption that I've seen.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
But New York City is too big a city for
somebody to run that has never had a full time
real job.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No one's getting free groceries, and no one's getting free
runt it does. More than two million New Yorkers came
out to vote for mayor, something that hasn't happened since
nineteen sixty nine, and when the results came in, more
than fifty percent of voters went for Zoran Mamdani, the
thirty four year old Democratic socialist whose platform was laser
focused on one key issue, affordability.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Tonight, you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate
for a new kind of politics, a mandate for.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
A Mamdanni won every borough but Staten Island He won
in precincts that were majority Black and majority Hispanic, and
precincts where most residents were renters and public transit users. Now,
as mayor elect, Mamdanni faces a new challenge governing a
city of eight and a half million people, including the
(01:40):
vocal minority of New York's wealthiest who opposed him and
poured millions into political action groups trying to defeat him.
Mamdani has been unapologetic and steadfast in his message that
many of the city's problems are rooted in income inequality,
and in his victory speech billionaires were part of what
he said had gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
We will put an end to the culture of corruption
that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and
exploit tax breaks, but with.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Their outsized influence on the city's politics, economy, and revenue.
Mam Donnie has also tried to make peace with the
cities one percent, and there are signs that several of
those big name high net worth skeptics are already coming around.
Last month, Jamie Diamond, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase,
said at a conference led by Fortune magazine that he
(02:33):
was ready to work with Mam Donnie if he won.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If he becomes mayor, I will call him an or
for my help.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Does may not agree with him?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And at a news conference today, Mam Donnie said he's
ready to sit down with people like Diamond too.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
So I look forward to having those kinds of meetings,
be it with Jamie Diamond or be it with other
business leaders, and continuing to show that our affordability agenda
is an agenda that would also benefit businesses across the city.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from
Bloomberg News today. On the show, New York City's uber
wealthy tried to stop or on mam Donnie's rise. Now
they're processing his victory. Can Mamdani come to the table
with billionaires and business leaders while delivering on the policies
and principles that got him elected? New York New York
(03:30):
the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, and the
city where money never sleeps.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
This is a really great place to get rich.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Emily Flitter covers economic and social inequality for Bloomberg. She says,
from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty three, the city minted
nine thousand new million dollar earners, a rate of three
per day. By twenty twenty three, there were almost thirty
five thousand New Yorkers making a million or more a year.
But if New York is a good place to get rich,
(04:03):
it's an even better place to get richer.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
The billionaires who already live in New York City saw
their combined net worth grow ninety percent in the last
nine years.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Mam Donnie ran on a platform highlighting the fact that
along with that growing wealth has come a growing wealth divide.
Here he is on NBC's Meet the Press in June.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly,
it is so much money in a moment of such inequality.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
New York City has some of the deepest income inequality
in the country. According to an analysis of census data
by the Center for New York City Affairs, the top
twenty percent of New Yorkers have total incomes thirty three
times larger than the bottom twenty percent, and Mam Donnie's
campaign promised to tax those at the top to provide
more public services for everyone.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The sort of three pillars of his campaign are fast
and free buses, freezing the rent, and free childcare for
children between six weeks and five years.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Old.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Bloomberg City Lab reporter Fola Akinneby recently profiled Mam Donnie
for BusinessWeek and looked at why his campaign caught on.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It speaks to the underlying stress and the underlying weight
of the conditions in the city. Right And when you
look at at the same time the stock market doing
what it's doing, and folks at the top getting wealthier,
and you see a federal push sit to cut.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Taxes, and the number of millionaires in the city has
grown as grown as well.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I think people start asking questions about where they fit in.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
But as Mom Donnie campaigned on affordability for all, he
also tried to win over the cities one percent in
New York. That's people making at least nine hundred thousand
dollars a year. They're a big driver of the city's
economy because of how much money they pay an income
and property taxes. Mam Donnie recognized that a path to
(05:54):
victory in New York included getting them on board, so
he reached out to Catherine During.
Speaker 7 (06:01):
The year before the primary election, I had met with
Zoran a few times, had introduced him to a couple
business leaders.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Catherine is the president and CEO of the Partnership for
New York City, a trade group representing the city's largest
employers across industries like real estate and banking.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
Although there was not, frankly, a lot of interest in
his candidacy in the business community, no one had basically
ever heard of him. If they had, it was that
he was a socialist and a marginal character.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
After mam Donnie's dramatic primary win, that changed, Catherine set
up a series of meetings between Mamdani and the city's
business leaders to talk about their visions.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
For the city.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Which policy areas have been most concerning or divisive to
business leaders, and where are there areas of agreement.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
So I think in general their areas of agreement are
that there is an affordability crisis in this city and
that we need to bring costs down, and disagreement on
how do we solve that, with the business community thinking
we do not solve that by increasing government spending, because
(07:16):
that will just put a new tax burden on everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Many business leaders viewed mom Donnie with skepticism, thinking he
was young and relatively inexperienced. Some believed his proposals were
unrealistic or even posed a fundamental threat to their financial interests,
and Catherine said people in her network also had other concerns.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
One source of great concern is coming from members of
the Jewish community that feel the strong importance of the
Jewish homeland. The other areas are in terms of support
for charter schools, mayoral control of the schools, most importantly
public safety.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Big name, wealthy New Yorkers largely backed former New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo. A Bloomberg News analysis found that pro
Cuomo and anti mam Donnie PAX raised over twenty six
million dollars between the June primary and yesterday's election, fueled
by donations from investors like Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb,
as well as Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority
(08:17):
owner of Bloomberg LP.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
There's been a lot of outside money flowing into this race,
and when you look at the advertisements and the messages
that are coming from these outside groups, these outside packs,
they've been pretty dark pictures of what the city could
look like under mayor mam Donnia. They say that, like
you know, crime is going to spike and the city
is going to change.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Mam Donni won't be able to achieve his key affordability
proposals alone, because the city doesn't fully control its own
per strengths. He's proposed paying for things like free buses
and universal childcare with increased corporate and income taxes. But
the power to set those tax rates and the operation
of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is held in the state's capital, Albany, so.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Free buses would require likely some money from the MTA.
That the campaign puts a cost it around seven hundred
million dollars a year. The city has one hundred and
sixteen billion dollar budget. The city might be able to
afford it on its own, but he again would probably
need some state funding for that. Universal childcare is a
huge it's a massive undertaking. We're talking about six seven
million dollars a year, and it's also something that could
(09:24):
not be stood up, you know, in one year overnight,
right like something's going to take years now. Governor Cathy
Hoko in the past has said that she is not
open to raising taxes, and she has her own election
to look forward to in twenty twenty six. At the
same time, I think Mom Donnie's calculation here is that
all these people can be pushed and you know, funny enough.
(09:45):
If you look at Hoko's appearance at this Mom Donny
rally that was about a week or two ago, she
was heckled when she came on to stage. People were
chanting tax the rich, tax the rich, and she equivocater,
all right, I can hear you.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Hoko later said on a podcast that she still didn't
plan to raise taxes, but that she was hearing people's voices.
Catherine Wilde says the business community, meanwhile, sees tax hikes
as a non starter.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
Personal and corporate tax increases are great concerns since we're
the highest tax city in the country. So a New
Yorker today, in a middle or upper middle income family,
fifty five percent of their paycheck goes to the government
in state, federal, and city taxes. And if you go
(10:33):
to Florida or Texas or Tennessee, you end up paying
thirty eight percent because they don't have state and local
income taxes. We just saw a two point six billion
dollar increase in state tax revenues because of Wall Street bonuses.
We do not want to lose those bonuses. We want
them to stay right here.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
How would the business leaders like to see Mom Donnie
address some of those key affordability issues, if not by
raising taxes or going to the state for more money.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
By reducing the size of government. We have three hundred
thousand employees of New York City government, the most in history.
I think that the city spending is mostly on labor,
and those expenses have gone up more than fifty percent
over the past decade. So I think most people in
(11:21):
the private sector think we could get along with less government.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
The fear that wealthy New Yorkers might leave if they're
tax too much or if the city isn't run in
the way they want is one that mum donnie's critics
repeated in the lead up to the election. In late October,
Bill Ackman posted on x that mumdannie's quote anti business policies,
including higher corporate taxes, will kill NYC jobs and cause
(11:47):
companies to flee. And here's the Heritage Foundation. Stephen Moore
on Fox Business News in September.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
If mcdonnie wins, Wall Street will no longer be located
in Manhattan, it will move.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So now that mom donnie's one is Wall Street moving
to Florida. That's after the break. If New York's billionaires
(12:21):
and multimillionaires were to pack up and leave tomorrow, it
would have a big impact on the city's finances. The
top one percent of earners account for forty percent of
the city's eighteen billion dollars in annual income tax revenue,
and the homes they own and offices they run or
work for rack up a lot of real estate taxes,
(12:41):
covering a large proportion of the city's thirty four billion
dollars in annual property levies. But Bloomberg's Emily Flitter says
those big real estate investments are also part of the
reason that it isn't so easy for the city's corporations
to quit New York. Barclay's just announced plans to invest
a billion an office tower in Times Square. JP Morgan's
(13:03):
new Park Avenue building fits ten thousand employees.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
That's not something that any of these owners or investors
in real estate can just pick up and walk away with.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Sure, there are plenty of financial professionals who've already been
lured to South Florida, earning it the nickname Wall Street South,
But Emily says, when it comes to earning potential and
lifestyle potential, New York wins every time.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
In twenty twenty, four Wall Street South financial industry employees
earned one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars on average,
whereas if you were working in finance in Manhattan last year,
you earned an average of four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars.
And I'm actually I'm from Miami. I love Miami, so
(13:54):
I don't want to be dissing Miami, but it just
doesn't have as much stuff as New It has fewer
fancy restaurants, it doesn't have as many really high end schools.
And let me just point out that the biggest corporate
move to South Florida has been from Chicago. Citadel moved
(14:17):
to Miami, Ken Griffin moved down there. But Ken Griffin
just announced that Citadel is going to invest a lot
of money so that they can enhance their presence in
New York.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Emily says, if you really want to know how New
Yorkers might react to a tax increase, you can look
back to what happened after New York increased its top
personal income tax rates in twenty twenty one from eight
point eighty two percent to nearly eleven percent for the
highest earners overall.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
The data showed that people did not leave New York
in significant numbers because of the tax hikes. It's as
simple as.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
That, and well.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Catherine Wilde, the head of the Partnership for New York City,
cautions that higher taxes could make the city less competitive.
She says, the fears about Mom Donnie have been overblown.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
Certainly. I don't think people who are knowledgeable are going
to pick up and leave before they know that something
really devastating is going to happen, and there's no indication
that that's the case. Much of the rhetoric around this
mayoral election have suggested that a Mom Donnie victory will
(15:30):
result in the city falling into deep decline, that it
will be like the nineteen seventies. People should know that
if the budget in the city goes out of whack.
We have a financial control Board, which is run by
the governor, the state Controller, private sector representation they take over.
The mayor has no control over increasing income or corporate taxes.
(15:55):
The mayor has some control over real estate taxes, but
Mam Donnie has already said that he wants to reduce
real estate taxes where possible. Last spring, he was talking
about I'm going to freeze the rent. We asked the question,
how are you going to freeze the rent if you
don't freeze the costs? How are you going to continue
(16:16):
to encourage investment in rental housing if you don't have
some incentives financial incentives for that investment. He has now
incorporated into his freeze the rent plan a plan to
reform property taxes. So that's an example where I have
(16:37):
seen him incorporate the feedback he's gotten and now seems
prepared to take a more comprehensive and practical view of
that issue.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Catherine says. Another example of Mom Donnie's openness to compromise
was his decision to keep Police Commissioner Jessica Tish in
her position if you want. Is it fair to say
that one of the takeaways of this conversation at least
his Wall Street don't panic.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
Absolutely. My message would be, don't panic, but be prepared
to roll up your sleeves and help our next mayor
solve the affordable crisis, which will be good for business,
for Wall Street and for the residents of New York City.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
As Mom Donnie enters, Gracie Manson, buoyed by the support
of a diverse coalition of New Yorkers, Bloomberg City Labs,
Fola Kennedy says, Mam Donnie will continue to walk this
fine line. Can he come to the table for compromises
with big business while staying true to the values that
have made him so popular.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I think that's what's going to define his administration, right,
like whether he's able to sort of like thread some
of these needles.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I'm wondering whether you think the business community was caught
off guard by the rise of Mom Donnie and what
they should take away from the way that he's resonated
with voters.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I think a lot of people were cut off guard
by Mam Donny's rise, and it speaks to again how
much his message of affordability is resonated. This is a
guy that throughout the campaign has stuck to that talking point.
If you ask him any question, he always returned to
affordability as part of his answer to the question, and
I think it shows the power of that kind of messaging.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Already, it seems like Wall Street is coming around. Bill Ackman,
the billionaire investor who'd been warning of an imminent exodus
of the wealthy if Mom Donnie won, posted on X
last night tagging Mom Donnie quote congrats on the win.
Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC,
just let me know what I can do. And even
(18:37):
President Donald Trump, speaking earlier today, followed up criticism of
mom Donnie by saying, we want New York to be successful.
We'll help him a little bit. Maybe this is the
Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. To get
more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all
(18:57):
of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg dot com
slash podcast offer. If you liked this episode, make sure
to follow and review The Big Take wherever you listen
to podcasts. It helps people find the show. Thanks for listening.
We'll be back tomorrow.
Hosts And Creators
Sarah Holder
Saleha Mohsin
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