Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat socialist running to be New York City’s next mayor, wants to junk the white collar welfare program he and his family used to enjoy luxury, low-tax living in Manhattan.
Here’s the story, from Carl Campanile at the New York Post:
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly property tax exemptions for Columbia University — exemptions that he and his family benefited from for years as tenants of a stylish apartment complex owned by the Ivy League, The Post has learned.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist state Assemblyman from Astoria, Queens, proposed legislation that calls for a dramatic alteration or repeal of real property tax exemptions for ‘private institutions of higher education.’
Let me be clear, I’m one hundred percent for scrapping this handout, but the hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness is simply astounding. Okay, so it shouldn’t be—Mamdani is like every other socialist before him, following an axiom of luxury living for me, but not for thee—but it is.
According to Campanile, Columbia is one of the “largest private property owners in the city” with “150 buildings that are used to rent housing to more than 8,000 faculty, staff,” and select students. Now, Mamdani’s father is a professor, and has apparently been leasing a luxury apartment in a “grand” complex for the last 25 years—this is where Zohran grew up. Here are the taxpayer-subsidized amounts, for reference:
Because of massive tax breaks, the professors pay below-market or discounted rents compared to other private buildings in the area — at least 20% to 25% lower — Columbia sources said.
For example, last year, the Columbia property where the Mamdanis have lived received a 91% exemption, which resulted in an annual property tax liability of approximately $17,184, according to the city Department of Financial Services.
If the Riverside Drive building had not benefited from the exemption, the annual tax liability on the property would have been $190,942, according to DFS records.
That’s a massive savings of $173,758 for Columbia.
How classic: a greedy socialist living off of someone else’s money, unwilling to afford the same amenities and benefits to others.
Recall Fidel Castro’s “humble fisherman’s hut” which was actually an opulent vacation home, one of at least 20 properties owned by the Cuban socialist. Don’t forget socialist Hugo Chávez’s accumulation of wealth, which ballooned into the billions while his people starved, and inflation reached one million percent.
And, Nicolae Ceaușescu, a Romanian socialist whose property portfolio included fifteen European palaces and a number of yachts, and who used the people’s money to provide his dog with a high-profile motorcade of his own.
Again, luxury for me, but not for thee. There’s nothing prohibiting these socialists forgoing the tax break, and writing a check out to the state or federal treasury for the full tax amount for all their socialist programs, if they really believed their own bulls***.
Image: Karamccurdy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.
