Senator Bernie Sanders has agreed to headline a previously unannounced rally in New York City next week, lending his star power to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to raises taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents.
The March 29 rally in the Bronx is scheduled to take place just as negotiations over the state budget heat up, organizers said, and is intended to demonstrate unity on the left as it faces off with state leaders opposed to raising personal income and corporate tax rates.
There is just one catch. Mr. Mamdani has told organizers that he himself is unlikely to show up, according to two people familiar with the talks who are not authorized to discuss them.
If he follows through, it would be the second time in just over a month that Mr. Mamdani has skipped out on a high-profile public rally in support of his own stated position. The mayor has told organizers of both events that he is trying to avoid antagonizing Gov. Kathy Hochul.
A spokesman for the mayor, Joe Calvello, declined to comment on the forthcoming rally or whether Mr. Mamdani planned to attend. So did a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul, Jen Goodman.
The absences reflect Mr. Mamdani’s awkward balancing act as he seeks to implement as much of his ambitious agenda as possible in his first months as mayor.
On one side are the city’s current budgetary needs and the democratic socialist principles, including billions of dollars in tax increases, for which Mr. Mamdani and his political base have long advocated. On the other is a moderate governor who has significant sway over broad swaths of the mayor’s agenda and generally opposes raising rates.
Whether Mr. Mamdani can find a way to satisfy both sides — or angers them — remains to be seen. But Mr. Sanders’s presence at the rally, set to be held at Lehman College, will only make the trade-offs more stark.
The Vermont senator is the de facto leader of the left nationally and swore Mr. Mamdani in as mayor at his inauguration in January. In an interview, Mr. Sanders declined to comment on Mr. Mamdani’s positioning but said he wanted to lend his support to efforts to raise taxes across the country, from California to Congress, to combat growing wealth inequality.
“I don’t want to get into the New York City, New York State politics,” he said. “My point is to make it very clear that at a time when the wealthiest people in New York City have had it so good, it is high time they start paying their fair share.”
Mr. Sanders, who recently held a rally in Los Angeles in favor of new wealth tax on billionaires, said he had been invited to the Bronx event by the Democratic Socialists of America and other groups organizing it.
So far, Mr. Mamdani’s allies on the left have largely given him leeway as he pursues a conciliatory strategy with Ms. Hochul. Few, for example, publicly complained when he endorsed her re-election campaign and skipped last month’s rally for a tax increase in Albany.
Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of the D.S.A.’s New York City chapter, declined to discuss Mr. Mamdani’s plans for the rally. But he said Mr. Sanders would help increase pressure on Ms. Hochul and legislative leaders in Albany.
Mr. Mamdani “has a long history of negotiating internal political relationships with an agitational outside movement that he knows is necessary to pass his agenda,” Mr. Gordillo said. “We see this rally as aligned with the strategy he has used his whole career.”
Privately, though, some D.S.A. members and leaders of other left-leaning advocacy groups have begun to worry that the mayor is giving away too much of their leverage for too little from Ms. Hochul. They are watching closely.
Mr. Mamdani campaigned on tax increases as a candidate last year, and since taking office, his administration has asked the governor and state lawmakers to consider a range of potential options that would raise billions of dollars annually to fund the city’s expansive social services. They argue that redistributing wealth is not only good policy but necessary to close a looming $5.4 billion budget gap.
His proposals include a two percentage-point increase in income taxes on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year, a corporate tax increase and other smaller measures, like ending sales tax exemptions or new surcharges on residences worth more than $5 million.
Democratic majorities in the State Senate and Assembly have generally sided with Mr. Mamdani in their own budget proposals, calling for increases to generate billions of dollars in new revenue for the city.
But Ms. Hochul is less amenable to the idea. She has repeatedly said that she worries raising taxes could cause wealthy individuals and large companies to leave the state. New York already has among the highest tax rates in the country.
The governor has signaled willingness to potentially raise taxes on some businesses. But so far, she has tried to help Mr. Mamdani meet the city’s revenue needs by offering direct aid from the state’s existing coffers, and has found other funds to pay for one of his marquee priorities, expanding free child care statewide.
Benjamin Oreskes contributed reporting.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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