He wants to have his cake and tax it too.
Self-stylized anti-socialist moderate Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi wants to hike taxes on the wealthy — but he still doesn’t agree with city mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s philosophy.
Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat, is against raising taxes in New York and instead wants to hike the federal income tax hikes for people making $400,000 or more a year.
“We should raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans at the federal level, not at the state or city level,” he told The Post in a statement Wednesday. “Taxes are already too high in New York and people are leaving.”
Additional revenue raised from the fees should be returned to the state and used “specifically for local tax relief,” he said.
“New York sends far more tax dollars to Washington than it gets back, even as families and businesses struggle under some of the highest tax burdens in the nation,” said Suozzi, who had backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Mamdani in the mayoral race.
“We should bring that money home to reduce the burden on New Yorkers and keep people from leaving our state,” he added.
Those comments followed a WNYC Radio appearance where Suozzi first floated the plan in response to host Brian Lehrer asking if the congressman agreed with Mamdani’s plan to raise the city income tax on millionaires by 2 percentage points.
“I’d like a 2.6 percent increase on the wealthiest Americans at the federal level. I’d like to see a 2 percent increase — a 2.6 percent increase actually — on high wealth individuals, people making about $400,000 a year at the federal level,” Suozzi said.
Republicans pounced, saying Suozzi’s tax hike proposal will be a campaign issue next year in the race for the House District 3 seat that includes parts of Nassau County and Queens.
“Two-Faced Tom Suozzi finally said the quiet part out loud: He wants you to pay higher taxes. Suozzi is hopelessly out of touch and soon to be out of a job,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole said.
Suozzi’s tax hike proposal even caught some Democrats by surprise, with some claiming he is swerving to the left after saying during the mayoral race that socialists should leave the Democratic Party and create their own political party.
“[Suozzi] is playing to the left — but the left ain’t having it,” said one Democratic Party insider, who requested anonymity.
“He wanted AOC [democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Mamdani to leave the Democratic Party. Now he’s adopting their tax program!”
Raising federal taxes on the rich nationally will relieve pressure from high cost states like New York from raising their own, which drives residents out of the state, Suozzi said.
New York governments rightly pay higher salaries for teachers and other workers and spend more to make sure residents have health insurance than lower costs like Florida and Texas, the congressman said.
“But we have to realize New York is in a competition as to where people are living and we are losing that race to some of those low tax states,” he told WNYC.
Mamdani has proposed $10 billion in income tax hikes on millionaires and corporations to fund his affordability agenda to provide public subsidies for free child care and free buses and build more lower cost housing.
But he needs the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign off. Hochul, who is seeking re-election next year, opposes increasing taxes.
As for last week’s election results, Suozzi admitted that Republicans won the big races in Nassau County because they “effectively weaponized” Mamdani against Democratic candidates. He also said the GOP has hammered away at weaknesses with “Democratic brand.”
The Nassau GOP has run against the “soft on crime” Democratic cashless bail law in recent years.
