Latest news with #FiscalPolicyInstitute
Mint
27-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
‘One way ticket out of NYC': Rapper 50 Cent's offer to Zohran Mamdani over proposal to tax rich
American rapper 50 Cent has sparked controversy with his recent post on Instagram slamming the Indian-origin politician Zohran Mamdani's proposed tax reforms. The hip-hop star offered to buy Mamdani a 'first-class one-way ticket' out of New York City after the newly nominated Democratic mayoral candidate vowed to raise taxes on the wealthy. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and son of Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, recently clinched the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor. His campaign focused on housing affordability, rent freezes in stabilised units, city-run grocery stores, and free public transport, all to be funded through increased taxes on New York's top earners. In an Instagram post, 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, shared a clip of Mamdani explaining his tax proposal and wrote, 'Where did he come from? Whose friend is this? I'm not feeling this plan no.' The rapper also added, 'I'll give him $258,750 and a first class one-way ticket away from NY. I'm telling Trump what he said too!' The rapper's outburst came in response to Mamdani's comments on The Breakfast Club podcast earlier this month, where he suggested a flat 2% tax hike for those earning over $1 million annually. 'I know if 50 Cent is listening, he's not going to be happy about this,' Mamdani had said, anticipating pushback. Right-wing social media users, including Trump supporters, quickly joined the fray, mocking Mamdani and cheering 50 Cent's remarks. MAGA-aligned accounts told Mamdani 'good riddance,' while conservative influencer Nick Sortor reacted with 'LMAO.' Despite the backlash, Mamdani stood by his plan during a CNN interview, citing data from the Fiscal Policy Institute which suggested that high earners were less likely to leave New York than lower-income groups, and often moved to other high-tax states like New Jersey and California. Mamdani, who recently defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo in a surprise political upset, said the issue was less about tax burdens and more about quality of life in the city.
NDTV
27-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
"Rs 2.2 Crore, One-Way Ticket": Rapper 50 Cent's Offer To Zohran Mamdani
Rapper 50 Cent has taken aim at Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York mayor polls, over his proposed tax policies, offering the candidate a "first class one-way ticket" out of the city. Mr Mamdani, an assemblyman from Queens and self-described democratic socialist, won in Tuesday's Democratic primary, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo. His poll pitch focuses on making life more affordable for working-class New Yorkers, with promises to freeze rent on stabilised units, provide free public buses, and set up city-owned grocery stores. To fund these, he plans to raise taxes on the city's richest residents and big corporations. On Wednesday, Queens native and Grammy-winning rapper 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, posted a clip of Mr Mamdani outlining his tax plan. "Where did he come from? Whose friend is this? I'm not feeling this plan. No. I will give him $258,750 (over Rs 2.2 crore) and a first class one-way ticket away from NY," the rapper wrote on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 50 Cent (@50cent) The comment came after Mr Mamdani name-dropped 50 Cent on The Breakfast Club podcast, acknowledging that his tax policies may not sit well with celebrities and wealthy figures. "I know if 50 Cent is listening, he's not going to be happy about this. He tends to not like this tax policy, but I want to be very clear this is about $20,000 a year," Mr Mamdani said. He said his tax plan targets corporations making millions in profit, not just revenue, and includes a flat "2 per cent tax increase" on the top "1 per cent of New Yorkers", specifically those earning a million dollars or more annually. The rapper, whose net worth is estimated near $1 billion, fired back on Instagram, writing, "I'm telling Trump what he said too." Zohran Mamdani elaborated on his tax plans during a CNN interview with Erin Burnett on Thursday. Responding to concerns that the wealthy might leave the city if taxes go up, Mr Mamdani cited a 2023 Fiscal Policy Institute report that found the top one per cent of earners leave New York at one-fourth the rate of other income groups and often relocate to other high-tax states like New Jersey and California. Zohran Mamdani argued that quality of life, not taxes, is the driving factor behind such moves and said his policies are designed to benefit working-class New Yorkers without causing economic flight.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Socialist mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani pitches 2% tax hike on NYC's millionaires to raise $10B for freebie-filled agenda
It's a bit rich. Democratic socialist mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani pitched a 2% tax hike Wednesday on New York City's millionaires to help pay for his freebie-filled agenda. Mamdani unveiled his tax-the-rich proposal — which includes another hike targeting big corporations — in a news conference outside City Hall. 'We are putting forward a platform today that will raise $10 billion a year to pay for our agenda,' he said. 'When it comes to taxing the 1% of New York City will do so by taxing them an additional 2%.' Mamdani's plan calls to increase corporate taxes by 4.5%, which campaign officials said would collect $5.4 billion from corporations. Another $4 billion would come from the increased taxes on the wealthy, with additional income flowing in by beefing up the city's tax collection agency, officials said. The state Assembly member from Queens has risen from dark horse candidate to the runner up in polls, behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the crowded June Democratic mayoral primary. Mamdani has done so through a mix of engaging TikTok-friendly videos and an unapologetically socialist agenda, promising free buses and childcare, a rent freeze and city-run food stores. But his lofty goal of showering New Yorkers in freebies comes with a hefty price tag — and potential logistical hurdles. Hiking income taxes would require approval by Albany lawmakers likely loathe to soak the rich. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio similarly vowed to raise taxes on the rich during his 2013 run, but he was stymied by then-Gov. Cuomo. Millionaires fled the Big Apple in droves during the coronavirus pandemic's early days, a 2023 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute found. But while New York state lost 2,400 millionaires between during the first three years of COVID, it also 'gained 17,500 millionaires in the same period due to a strong economy and rising wages,' the study states. Those high earners also tended to move to other high tax states such as California, Connecticut and New Jersey, the study found. 'When high earners do move, they are more like to move to another high tax state than to a low tax state, indicating that taxes are relatively low on the list of motivating factors in high earners' moving decisions,' the study states.
New York Times
11-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A New Luxury-Building Amenity the Whole Neighborhood Can Use: Child Care
It was time for the real estate developer to face facts: No one was really using the common space on the second floor of his new Harlem apartment building. Rather than let the room remain dormant, the developer, Josef Goodman, had an idea. Why not turn it into something that the neighborhood, rather than just the building's residents, actually needed: a child care center. On a recent weekday morning, a dozen toddlers who live nearby passed the deli on the building's ground floor and climbed a flight of stairs to the revived lounge space, converted last fall into Little Legacy Village Preschool. They gathered on a rainbow mat and wriggled into a downward dog and child's pose for a yoga session to start off the day. The preschool is part of an emerging alliance between real estate, one of New York City's most powerful industries, and child care, one of its most beleaguered. David and Goliath being on the same team confers mutual benefits. The city's child care operators are often desperate for space but strapped for cash. Developers can offer deals on rent or help with converting vacant spaces — all while offering wary neighbors an amenity that, unlike a pet spa or a cold plunge, might actually make their lives easier. There is widening concern among the city's captains of industry that the soaring cost of child care is bad for business. Families with young children have been leaving New York in large numbers since the coronavirus pandemic. A report by the left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute found that families with children under 6 were about twice as likely to leave the city than New Yorkers without children. Families have cited concerns about the lack of access to convenient, affordable child care. The city has lost about 8 percent of its licensed child care providers in the past 10 years, according to a recent report, and some neighborhoods have no licensed providers at all. The Real Estate Board of New York, a powerful lobbying group, has taken notice. Last year, the organization launched a campaign with District Council 37, a union representing some of the city's lowest-paid child care workers, to push politicians to increase the city's child care tax credit and make it easier to open new centers. And the real estate group has been eager to highlight child care spaces included in new buildings. 'We have been seeing this expanding universe of common areas that are provided for some sort of public good,' said Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal company Miller Samuel. 'It's hard for many to see a developer as altruistic,' he added. 'But the idea is that it's not being done for altruism, it's being done for community acceptance, and that is a very important component of development.' For Mr. Goodman, the founder of Haussmann Development, creating child care space achieves a few goals at once. It might make it easier for him to retain tenants, some of whom he said tended to leave his buildings or the city altogether after they started having children. Also, it never hurts to have the community on your side. 'Generosity is your best form of marketing, right?' he said. 'And then you've developed a reputation where people begin to trust you, and they allow you to build.' Mr. Goodman worked with Erica Forte, an educator who runs a day care center out of her home down the block from Little Legacy, to open the space. Haussmann spent about $100,000 and used its in-house construction and accounting teams to help convert what Mr. Goodman called a 'white vanilla box' into a colorful classroom. Most of the students use city-funded child care vouchers to pay tuition. Sometimes, including child care in a new development can help build neighborhood support. Some residents of Windsor Terrace, a low-rise Brooklyn enclave, opposed the development of two new apartment buildings on the site of a commercial laundry building nearby, arguing that the relatively tall buildings would be out of scale with the neighborhood and would not offer enough affordable housing. When the City Council approved the development in February, the deal included a sweetener: ground floor child care space. At 655 Union, a new luxury building in Gowanus, Brooklyn, there is a 25-yard pool outside and a wellness studio upstairs. On the ground level, the building's developers have leased 3,700 square feet to NY Kids Club, a preschool. And in Inwood, one of the last affordable neighborhoods in Manhattan, some residents worried about the height of a new building — the Eliza — the latest development to feature apartments built on top of new public libraries. When the Eliza opened last year, it included a public prekindergarten center. While early childhood experts praised those arrangements, they cautioned that they represented only a fraction of the child care seats that the city needed. Tara Gardner, the executive director of the Day Care Council of New York, said she hoped the real estate industry would consider subsidizing the salaries of child care employees who worked in its buildings. Many such employees make just over minimum wage, and people are leaving the child care industry in droves. 'We can create all the spaces and capacity we need, but if there's no work force, it's all for naught,' she said. It remains to be seen just how far the real estate industry will go in supporting child care. In the meantime, some child care operators are creating their own playbooks for how to work with developers. Vivvi, a venture-capital-backed child care network with 10 city locations, is a tenant of some of the most powerful real estate groups in the city. The network struck a deal with Related Companies, which helped develop Hudson Yards in Manhattan, to become the sprawling development's exclusive child care provider, with the goal of bolstering attendance in office buildings. Vivvi also offers child care benefits through NewYork-Presbyterian, one of the city's largest hospital systems and a real estate juggernaut in its own right. A Vivvi location near the hospital's Upper East Side location offers child care from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m., to accommodate medical workers' schedules. It pays to work with some of the city's wealthiest landlords who can take on more risk, said Charles Bonello, Vivvi's chief executive. Developers can help make their vacant spaces safe for young children, offer deals on rent until a day care facility is fully enrolled or charge child care tenants a percentage of the revenue they generate, rather than a fixed monthly rate. 'The smartest and best landlords understand that it's not just the dollar per square foot you can get from a tenant,' Mr. Bonello said. Instead, developers can 'offer something that will drive interest and value to other holdings.' That is part of the reason that Jeff Gural, chairman of GFP Real Estate, started working child care into his real estate empire decades ago. In the 1990s, Buckle My Shoe Preschool was on the verge of being priced out of its space in TriBeCa, where landlords were beginning to raise rents. One of Mr. Gural's grandchildren happened to attend the school. And his company happened to own a 8,500-square-foot bank space nearby that was in need of a tenant. He turned the space into a preschool and provided scholarships for the city government employees who worked upstairs. A few years ago, Mr. Gural contributed $2 million to help convert another bank building he owned into a West Village location for Buckle My Shoe. Now, he offers half off the cost of the branch's tuition for many of the tenants in GFP's office portfolio. Mr. Gural is pragmatic about where this kind of arrangement will work, and where it won't — renting out prime retail space in SoHo to a preschool, for example, might not be a good bet. But Mr. Gural said he had been shocked by how much his own relatives were paying for child care these days. 'The most important thing for the city is to be able to attract young people who want to live here,' he said. 'If that ever changes, we're in big trouble.'
CBS News
25-03-2025
- Health
- CBS News
New York CDPAP recipients, caregivers have more time to switch to program's new payment system
New York state is offering a one-month grace period for hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people and home caregivers who must register for a new payment system. The state is cutting out 600 middlemen or fiscal intermediaries and will use only one vendor moving forward. The state health department says the change is needed to cut runaway costs. The transition is impacting the 280,000 New Yorkers enrolled in the Medicaid-funded Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) . The program pays for home care, including sometimes family members who are caregivers. The deadline to transition to the new payment system is March 28, but the speed of that transition has been controversial and difficult for some to navigate. The state is now offering a one-month grace period. Gina Centauro's sister, who is deaf and developmentally disabled, is enrolled in CDPAP. Centauro says it's been hard enough for her to register for the new system, let alone explain it to her sister's caregiver. "It's very hard to log on. You can't even figure it out," she said. "It automatically kicks you off and tells you that you're going to receive a phone call. The phone calls never came. It's terrifying because what do I do with my sister?" Centauro isn't even sure if her sister's caregiver is currently getting paid. During the grace period, caregivers are told they will be paid retroactively. "Retro pay ain't gonna help pay the bills. A lot of our staff members and ourselves, we live paycheck to paycheck," CDPAP personal assistant Vincent Centauro said. While Jeanine Marchioli works, her mother is paid $18 an hour to care for her son, who has autism and is nonverbal. The re-registration process is not going well. "No information sent out to people, and we're just floundering," Marchioli said. Experts in senior care say some kind of change is warranted. "While it's a lifesaver for some people, we have seen examples of abuse where people are collecting the funds and not being able to provide the care that's needed," said Lisa Stern, assistant vice president of senior programs with the Family and Children's Association. But some wonder if there will be any savings. "Because this transition has frankly been so mismanaged, many people who are receiving home care through this program ... could wind up in nursing homes and that will wind up being much more expensive for the state," said Michael Kinnucan, health policy director for the Fiscal Policy Institute. The new vendor says it upped its staff, working seven days a week to process the high volume. The state estimates $1 billion in savings from the change, calling it a common sense effort the preserve CDPAP services while cutting the middleman and Medicaid fraud.
