(TikTok screencap)
You must log in or # to comment.
Mamdani making T. Swizzle pay NYC taxes was the reason he balanced the budget? I thought it’s because he negotiated with NY state for aid (which, fair game; NYC pays more in taxes than it gets back), delayed the city pension, and is finalizing a pied-à-terre tax.
What meaningful raise on Taylor Swift’s taxes has Zohran Mamdani imposed? Did she not pay taxes before? What’s the source here?
The real world is allowed to be complicated and messy, and ironically, reducing it to “hurr durr he taxed Taylor Swift” is doing a disservice to what Mamdani actually managed to work out to balance the budget – which is imperfect, but he inherited a $12 billion deficit from a grifter. It’s good for what it is.
Taylor Swift owns multiple secondary properties in New York City.
She has amassed a massive real estate footprint on a single block in Tribeca, worth an estimated $50+ million. Her holdings include:
- An 8,000-square-foot duplex penthouse at 155 Franklin Street.
- A second-floor unit in the same building purchased for nearly $10 million.
- An $18 million townhouse right next door at 153 Franklin Street.
Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani finalized a deal to implement a pied-à-terre tax surcharge on luxury secondary residences in NYC.
The tax starts as a 4% surcharge on the property’s value and then there is an annual charge that scales up progressively based on the assessed value.
Rhode Island passed a similar luxury second-home tax targeting non-resident estates over $1 million, a piece of legislation that the press nicknamed the “Taylor Swift Tax” due to its impact on her $17 million Watch Hill mansion.
To say that this alone is balancing the budget is an oversimplification (what are hot takes if not reductive) but the tax will have a meaningful impact because she owns a lot of property in NYC.
Careful. Hurr-durr is your voter base!
Yeah this seriously needs a source
The good thing is that she still can donate to food pantries too!
taylor parties with magats i woulndt be so sure, and shes conservative herself.
Giving the freedom to billionaires to not pay taxes because they donate to charity is so very wrong.
I don’t have the power to decide where my taxes go. They shouldn’t either.
“Who knew non-profit would be so profitable?!”
As much as it would hurt charities, removing the tax deduction for donations of any kind feels necessary at this point.
Turns out, lots of charities are also grifts for their administrators.
Sam Altman knew.
Well, they’re actually not paying taxes on that portion. So they’re effectively getting to use your taxes to to multiply their promotion of whatever the goverment defines as charitable, be it food pantries or religious communities “providing” conversion therapy.
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Every billionaire is complicit, including your favorite billionaire: The pop star, the superstar athlete, the philanthropist, or the guru who cosplays as middle class. They’re all motherfuckers.
This is why I can’t stand to watch professional sports anymore, just some millionaire getting payed by his billionaire owner to play a game so you stay distracted by your bread and circuses.
Whatever you do, never mention this world-view at work, if you value your career.
I just hoot and holler along.
Totally honestly, I’m pretty open about all my views no matter where I am.
I think theres a work face and a personal face, and letting everyone at work see who you really are opens you up to conflict at work because people are generally too stupid to pick their battles-- and my ability to freely associate or not associate with whoever I choose doesnt apply at work.
Me too, because I don’t really have a career. I’ve somehow sunk to my level of barely-competent “work” and collect a paycheck.
I play in a few bands and do some sports in my free time so I feel I don’t really have the bandwidth to care about what my coworkers think or about my work other than I do it and get paid.
Like what’s even the point. Why do you care which oligarch leased the best toys for themselves this season?
But none of this is true. He didn’t balance the budget by taxing more, he did it by cutting pension contributions and state subsidies.
New Jersey tried this same playbook. It worked for a few years but now they are going bankrupt because the companies left.
Same thing is already happening to new York. Citidel is already moving to Florida.
Why are all the memes now text on top of pictures of randos
deleted by creator
It’s always weird cuz I donate to Charities and I also already pay taxes. How come they can’t do both?
He balanced the budget by doing some things right! But an additional 4bn came from the Governor that is trying to get reelected and is sucking up. Don’t forget that.
Me made 500 million from taxing more. He made up the other 11.5 billion from State subsides and stopping pension contributions.
And I applaud that!
Pension bit is a bit iffy.
Right, no one deserves to retire. We can’t afford it
How much of that 4bn originally came from the city anyway?
Oof that’s a difficult question. Do those that generate the revenue deserve more of said revenue or is there some redistribution?
Doesn’t matter to me right now because I think he is doing a great job
I think if there’s a surplus it should be redistributed, but the city should get what it needs to balance it’s budget before anything goes to the state/fed. This spending could be audited by the state to ensure that the money is not going to waste/corruption. Those who are producing the revenue should be able to benefit from it before anything goes to others.
I disagree with that. M understanding of a society is that you are helping on another. That should create an equal level of wealth, comfort, whatever you want to call it. So much for the theory.
Budgets are numbers set by what do I have and what do I want. And the want part is dynamic just as much as the have part. And as soon as there is some have everybody wants something. Why wouldn’t you just keep it all?
Another point is that a city can’t exist on its own. It needs food, water, logistics and people that come in to work. It is a giant standing on another kind of giants shoulders. It is not only morally right to share the revenue but necessary to keep the system running.
Speaking of morals: of course we need to help the others that are less fortunate.
Like i understand this, but also (as an NYC resident) its extremely demoralizing to spend so much money on taxes and not see those taxes reflected back in the city (crumbling infra, disgusting streets, a subway system that constantly smells like hot piss, etc) and is exactly why people end up leaving NYC/high tax areas because they don’t feel like their money is going to good use.
The cost of external logistics like water, waste management, highways, etc should be factored into the budget
I have no problem helping people, but I have a problem with a massive chunk of my tax dollars going to red towns who are constantly fighting to pay the least (while getting bankrolled by the rest of us) while I live in a city where things are literally falling apart.
This isn’t about wants. These are needs NYC is massive and has an absolute fuckton of problems that need to be solved as a result of that. This money is to take care of it’s citizens/infrastructure that are currently not having their needs met. People living/working in NYC should have the revenue they create go towards those things until their needs are covered. Paying for stuff provided by the rest of the state should also be included in that.
“Wants” would be the surplus I was talking about. If they get to that point then yea that money should be shared. Obviously societies should use their surplus to take care of those that need help but it’s not fair to expect those that are not having their needs met to give to others.
I knew it was Taylor Swift’s fault the whole time. :)
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I love the Fediverse fr
I thought he didn’t adjust taxes? I thought pension funds were used.
I’m not 100% up to date though so i may just be wrong.
It’s both. He convinced Kathy Hochul to pass a tax on second properties (pied-à-terre tax), but he also suspended pension contributions for 5 years.
That and a fucked up minimum wage
I am not sure if you are familiar with NY’s minimum wage. NY is one of the states that set the state minimum higher than the federal minimum and continued to do so. It still isn’t enough, but we are trying here.
Did he figure out a way to tax the billionaires that primarily own assets?
Yea i looked it up earlier. It looks like a tax on second homes valued over a certain amount
Fuck yeah he did.
And, shockingly, they’re not leaving NYC en masse.
I feel like this person just hates Taylor Swift
Sounds to me like they hate apologists for billionaires. And I do too.
First of all I want to point out how dumb it is that my comment had no downvotes before this person came around and insinuated I’m a “Taylor Swift apologist”. See, what we have here, folks, is the power of suggestion. All it takes to ruin someone’s image is an accusation. That’s why we have defamation laws. So, as revenge, I would like to let you know that FlashMobOfOne likes to steal chew toys from dogs and call them “little sons of bitches” then look their owners dead in the eye and say “What? That’s technically true”. Do I have to prove that? No. This is the internet. Take my word for it and downvote FlashMobOfOne. You should be ashamed of yourself for what you did to those puppies, pal.
Second of all, FlashMobOfOne, you brilliant master of deduction: in my comment I was referring to the fact that the person in that TikTok in the original post is using Taylor Swift to mean “all billionaires”, when Swift is hardly the wealthiest or most defiant of them. There’s no need to single one out, and if you do, it’s funny if you pick one that isn’t nearly as bad as the others, because it makes it look as if you have a personal problem with that one individual that is unrelated to their wealth. That’d be sort of like, say, hating the Spice Girls, “especially the black one”. Now do you get how my comment there was sardonic or are you still busy hating, and here is where I provide options, pretty blonde women that either: a) wouldn’t date you in high-school b) were more popular than you in high-school (because that is the sort of superficial teen-film level reactions that Swift tends to bring out in people)
Does everyone get it now? Has the humor been properly explained to everyone? Good. I’m going back to bed (literally) (just figured I’d point that out so no one reads into that too)
But just for the record, yes, I do listen to Swift and, no, I don’t think that makes me worse than the large collection of people here that yell about “capitalists” while using Amazon, having a Netflix subscription or watching sports on Rumble or whatever other businesses owned by billionaires. And no, I don’t like her wealth. I listen to her music, not to her shaking a bag of coins. I also don’t idolize her on the internet, because I’m not a boot licker.
And here’s another thing: Swift didn’t make her money by force. She didn’t monopolize the music industry and become the only artist who can provide vinyls, CDs and concert tickets. I don’t care how you look at it, the fact of the matter is that people give Swift money willingly. It’s literally on them. Nothing of what she sells is a basic necessity. So, again, the choice of Swift as a sort of “face of the billionaires” is such a laughably bad choice that it’s funny. That’s why the original post is funny and why my comment was too. And that’s regardless of anyone’s personal view on Swift.
Also, this: https://lemmy.world/comment/23769293
“Now, get outta here, you rascals, I mean it” - Bill Murray, SNL’s Weekend Update, 1977
EDIT: Petty, dammit… that’s the word I was looking for. The tiktok is funny cause it’s petty… It’s way less “fuck billionaires” and more “fuck taylor swift in particular”
To be fair, NYC has always had a balanced budget. It’s literally required by law.
Though there’s definitely been an increase of social services which is good.
Though I think it’s a misrepresentation to say that money came from taxing rich people more. The bulk of it, if I’m not much mistaken, has been from some creative accounting with the NYC pension system.
This is true, but also Adams left a huge deficit on his way out with must-pays with the sole intention of hurting Mamdani utilizing that requirement as a cudgel. It’s nothing short of impressive that he was able to stick to his values and reverse the damage at the same time.
Wait. So it’s still bologna? Who could’ve guessed?
Aaaah she’ll shake it off.
(Which is a mandamitory remark at this point)
Any citation? What I’m coming up with is a tax on 2nd homes in RI. https://nypost.com/2025/09/02/real-estate/the-taylor-swift-tax-is-catching-on-in-other-states/
