Democracy at Work

“To be or not to be?: Austerity vs. Socialism by

Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed several measures last week intended to reconcile New York’s $5.4 billion budget shortfall, or to use the mayor’s preferred phrase, the Adams Budget Crisis. Mamdani detailed how the former mayor systematically understated the operating costs of key city departments, ballooning New York’s budget deficit. To address this massive funding shortfall, Mamdani has called for New York Governor Kathy Hochul to enact a two percent income tax increase on New Yorkers making over one million dollars a year. Should this measure fail to pass, Mamdani’s backup plan would constitute a 9.5% increase in property taxes, while the city “would also take $980 million from its Rainy Day Fund and $229 million from the Retiree Health Benefits Trust.” So far, Governor Hochul has roundly rejected calls for an income tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers.

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https://open.substack.com/pub/democracyatwork/p/to-be-or-not-to-be-austerity-vs-socialism?r=3iyhg9&utm_medium=ios

“Basic Social Change in the U.S., March 2026: SCOTUS had broken from Trump on trade what does that mean?” By

The Supreme Court’s negation of Trump’s tariffs changes nothing much. The decline of the empire persists and with it that decline extends to the US economy as a whole. And it will continue whether or not Trump finds another law to use to justify tariffs (at higher, lower or the same levels as now) and whether or not SCOTUS invalidates it. The tariffs of 2025 exposed the basic decline situation including some of the costs of having denied and kicked that problem down the road so many times. The SCOTUS decision merely quibbles about the tariffs’ legal justification; this is not surprising given the GOP’s domination of SCOTUS. The class that has long dominated the GOP – employers – has always hated and opposed taxes. And tariffs are taxes that fall chiefly on US employers who buy imported inputs and who may or may not be able to shift them onto retail consumers.

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https://open.substack.com/pub/democracyatwork/p/basic-social-change-in-the-us-march?r=3iyhg9&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=card