Nassau County’s legislative leaders have a message for Gov. Kathy Hochul about New York City’s Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani’s tax plan: this would not be good for the state.
To oppose the Democratic-driven plan to increase New York’s corporate tax rate, the officials — all Republicans —formed the new Long Island Coalition of Business and Political Leaders, a collection of elected officials and business organizations.
“This is bad for New York state, and we are going to fight very hard against that,” County Executive Bruce Blakeman said on Nov. 17.
The mayor-elect’s plan is to increase to the corporate tax rate in New York City, bumping the top rate from 7.25 percent to 11.25 percent, aiming to support social programs with money sourced from the region’s highest earning businesses.
Blakeman bristled at the thought, expressing concern that higher taxes will drive out business, jobs and residents.
“We are on the border of New York City,” he said, “many of our people commute to the city to do business. What I’m concerned about is the deleterious effect that this will have on Nassau County and the rest of the state.”
Blakeman alleged that tax increases would be passed along to consumers and has heard some business leaders threaten to leave the city if taxes increase, which in turn could be a financial burden to the city’s middle class residents. He suggested the state and city cut spending on undocumented migrant programs as an alternative method to retain revenue.
“We don’t have a deficit in Nassau County,” he said. “For the past four years, we’ve had surpluses because we know how to manage money in Nassau County, and we’ve gotten seven bond upgrades, but that’s one of the ways that we can spend money on programs that benefit our residents.”
Sarafina Chitika, the spokesperson for the Hochul campaign, disputed the County Executive’s assertions.
“Governor Hochul cut middle class taxes while putting inflation refund checks in New Yorkers’ pockets,” she wrote in a statement. “Bruce Blakeman is the number one fanboy for Trump’s tariffs that are raising costs for families and making everything more expensive for small businesses – while the governor remains laser-focused on lowering costs, Blakeman’s shilling for Donald Trump’s tariff tax hikes.”
Meanwhile, Matt Cohen, president and CEO of the Long Island Association, called the tax proposal “a real problem.”
“It’s really incumbent upon us to push back against this plan as much as possible,” he said. “We have an affordability crisis in this country, but nowhere is it more acute than here on Long Island. And when you’re driving out businesses, when you’re driving out jobs, that’s going to make it worse, not better.”
Frank Camarano, president of the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce, highlighted the way New York City policies affect neighboring counties and businesses.
“Small businesses don’t have the wherewithal to try and work around this,” he said. “A strong New York City is a strong Nassau. If New York City is gonna propose things like this, it’s gonna be like an everyday occurrence, trying to work around it, and it’s going to be difficult.”
