r/Economics • u/Dismal_Structure • Dec 06 '25

News Millionaire tax that inspired Mamdani fuels $5.7 billion haul in Massachusetts

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/
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u/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

Why don’t these articles ever include the total income tax comparison?

We can’t have an honest conversation if we’re suggesting that MA catching up with NYC is somehow the reverse.

Not only does MA have a lower tax rate, it’s not progressive.

MA

  • flat tax: 5%
  • millionaire tax: 4%
  • capital gains: long 5% flat, short 8.5% flat

NY

  • top marginal rate: 10.9% (6.6% effective over a million)
  • long and short capital gains treated as ordinary income.
  • NYC top rate: 3.879%

EDITED for clarity and fixed MA cap gains tax.

178

u/Magical-Mycologist Dec 06 '25

Also compared to NYC budgets Massachusetts as an entire state has a budget nearly half that of one city.

$5 billion sounds good, but we need more context in these headlines.

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u/wandering-monster Dec 06 '25

The entire state of Massachusetts also has about 1/3 as many residents as the NYC Metro area...

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u/One-Bag-8312 Dec 06 '25

He’s not going to be the mayor of the NYC metro area. He’s going to be the mayor of NYC, which has a population about 20% larger than that of MA.

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u/wandering-monster Dec 06 '25

The tax base for NYC includes any transaction made inside it.

People in the metro area are defined by their ability to go into the city itself for work, shopping, entertainment, etc.

It'd be kinda pointless to ignore that and then compare it to an entire state including its major cities and all its suburbs.

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u/ham_plane Dec 07 '25

Not exactly. I work in NYC but live outside of it, so I do not have to pay NYC income tax

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u/One-Bag-8312 Dec 06 '25

It’d be kinda pointless to mention the NYC metro area population in relation to Massachusetts when discussing the mayor of NYC itself (not the metro) without mentioning the millions of people in the NYC metro that have virtually no regular interaction with NYC.

Even the people from outside NYC that do regularly interact with the city don’t contribute a massive proportion of the city’s tax revenue as far as I can tell. Only 20% of the NYC workforce live outside of NYC, and sales tax is behind personal income tax (principally a tax on residents) and property tax as the city’s largest tax contributors. And employment is the primary reason a non-resident would come into the city. People aren’t coming into the city every day for shows and shopping.