Joseph Hernandez, Republican candidate for state comptroller, issued a forceful condemnation of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s $127 billion preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2027, accusing the Mayor of dramatically expanding government while shifting the cost onto New Yorkers through major tax increases.

The proposal increases New York City spending by roughly $11 billion in a single year and leaves a remaining $5.4 billion gap. To close that gap, the administration is advancing significant increases in personal income and corporate taxes or a 9.5% property tax increase projected to generate approximately $3.7 billion annually, while also drawing down roughly $1.2 billion from City reserves.

Hernandez said the approach reflects a clear choice by the Mayor to grow government first and demand more from taxpayers second.

“Mayor Mamdani is proposing one of the largest property tax increases in decades while openly pushing for higher income and corporate taxes,” Hernandez said. “When spending reaches a record $127 billion and the answer is more taxes, that is not responsible budgeting. That is a tax burden placed directly on families and business owners.”

A 9.5% property tax hike would impact more than 3 million residential units and over 100,000 commercial properties across the five boroughs. Hernandez warned that such an increase would drive up rents, increase housing costs, and raise operating expenses for neighborhood businesses.

“Property taxes do not stay confined to homeowners,” Hernandez said. “They are passed on to renters, absorbed by small businesses, and reflected in higher prices across the city. In the middle of an affordability crisis, raising property taxes by nearly ten percent will make it harder for working New Yorkers to stay and succeed here.”

He also criticized the push for higher income and corporate taxes, arguing that repeatedly increasing the cost of living and doing business in New York risks weakening the city’s economic foundation.