(The Center Square) – As New York City residents head to the polls to potentially increase taxes by electing the self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, Texans will be voting on 10 constitutional amendments to restrict taxation.
If Mamdani, the frontrunner, wins the New York City mayoral race Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned New York City residents not to come to Texas.
“After the polls close tomorrow night, I will impose a 100% tariff on anyone moving to Texas from NYC,” he jested on X.
He did so after President Donald Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday that he would consider cutting federal funding to New York City if Mamdani wins.
It would be “hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York,” Trump said. “Because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.”
Mamdani, who has been labeled as a communist by his opponents and others, has proposed a series of tax increases targeting the wealthiest residents and corporations, the city’s primary tax base. If implemented, critics argue, many of them could leave the state. Residents and businesses already have left the Big Apple for Texas and other lower tax states.
Currently, one percent of city taxpayers pay 40% of the city’s income tax. Mamdani’s plan would have them pay more than 60%. His corporate tax increase plan would impact more than 1,000 businesses, according to an Empire Center analysis.
Increased taxes and spending could result in another fiscal crisis the city experienced 50 years ago, the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Committee warns.
In October 1975, the city was facing a default and “nearly collapsed under the weight of its own ambitions. The City tried to lift up all people by funding an expansive array of programs it could not afford with money it did not have – borrowing against future and even phantom revenues,” the CBC said. “Services were cut. Teachers, police officers, sanitation and many civilian workers were laid off or paid in scrip. Infrastructure disinvestment ensued. Quality of life declined, and outmigration increased. The very New Yorkers those programs meant to help suffered the most.”
While stronger oversight measures have been put in place since then, “we can see shadows of the Fiscal Crisis on the walls in 2025,” it warns. “Current revenues are not sufficient to sustain current spending, as unsustainable programs have been expanded. Many New Yorkers are not satisfied with the quality of life and government services. Domestic outmigration leaches our city of New Yorkers of all income and demographic groups. And New York City faces a housing affordability and underproduction crisis worse than in the 1970s.”
In contrast to New York City, voters who have a history of voting to increase taxes and spending, Texas voters have passed measures to restrict taxation at the state level.
Ten constitutional amendments on the ballot would restrict state-level taxation if approved, including prohibiting the state legislature from ever imposing a capital gains tax, a securities transaction tax, a death/inheritance tax, and an animal feed property tax, The Center Square reported.
Propositions also include measures to curb property taxes, including making permanent a $140,000 homestead exemption for all homeowners; making permanent a $60,000 homestead exemption from school district property taxes for the elderly and disabled; and permanently exempting property taxes on private properties where border security infrastructure was installed along the Texas-Mexico border.
Propositions also include creating a homestead exemption for surviving spouses of veterans who died from service-connected diseases; providing temporary property tax exemptions for homeowners whose homes were destroyed by a fire; and increasing a tax exemption for small businesses.
Texas, which has no state income tax and no corporate tax, continues to lead the U.S. in job creation and economic growth and ranks as the top state for business every year, The Center Square has reported.
When signing pro-growth, business-friendly bills into law earlier this year, Abbott said Texas voters have passed previous constitutional amendments to restrict taxation because of “our collective disdain in Texas for any type of tax. We dislike [taxes] so much that we made the income tax unconstitutional. We made a wealth tax unconstitutional. We made a real estate transaction tax unconstitutional. This session, we are making a capital gains tax unconstitutional.”
Because of this, “there’s never going to be any of those taxes in the state of Texas because it would require two-thirds vote [in the Texas legislature] to get it passed,” Abbott said. “That’s not happening in the lifetime of anybody here,” he said, referring to lawmakers who passed the bills he signed into law.
