Bravin Runga testifies in support of tax for affordability agenda
Bravin Runga of Invest in Our New York supports the tax as a step toward addressing the affordability crisis. He criticizes bad-faith attacks on the tax, notes super majorities of New Yorkers support taxing the rich, and urges swift implementation of Mayor Mamdani's agenda.
Can you all hear me?
Great.
Thank you so much for your time.
My name is Bravin Runga.
I'm the campaign manager with Invest in Our New York.
We are the statewide coalition of over 80 organizations representing thousands of New Yorkers and millions more who support our issue,
fighting for state-level legislation to tax the ultra-wealthy and most profitable corporations in order to fund our communities.
This year, we campaigned for progressive revenue, and while we did not win everything that we wanted or New Yorkers needed,
we supported and continue to support the pied-a-terre tax as an important step forward to generating the revenue needed to maintain the city's fiscal health and enact new programs to address the affordability crisis.
This tax on second homes would only affect the wealthiest homeowners, many of whom do not live in the city.
It taxes second, third, and fourth homes valued of over $5 million, which would raise $500 million to fund critical programs from housing to schools to sanitation.
The ultra-rich are making more money than ever before.
Income inequality is continuing to widen, and New York remains the most income-unequal state in the country.
And these ultra-rich residents of our state just received a $12 billion
annual tax cut from the federal government on the back of slashing our health care, our food assistance, and our supportive housing.
The ultra-rich can afford to buy multi-million dollar second and third homes while the rest of us are struggling just to survive.
Most New Yorkers can't afford their rent, their groceries, their child care, or their utility bills.
And we know we deserve better.
That is why we have built so much momentum for taxing the rich to keep our existing government services open and fund Mayor Mumdani's wildly popular affordability agenda.
But the rich are fighting back.
They are launching bad faith attacks on Peta Terror, weaponizing the courts, taking advantage of this hearing process to wrap up opposition.
And criticizing its implementation.
They are doing this because they do not have valid criticisms of the substance of the law, and they know they are losing the political battle.
Poll after poll shows that super majorities of New Yorkers support taxing the rich to keep our existing services open and enact new ones to address the affordability crisis.
Mayor Mumdani was elected with a mandate to enact his affordability agenda by taxing the rich.
I am heartened to hear that the majority of the council support this tax.
I urge you to not let this hearing process be taken advantage of by a few bad faith actors.
I urge you to implement the tax with all due haste and to be effective governing partners with the mayor.
so we can enact his affordability agenda, keep the city's fiscal health intact, and ensure New York is a place where all of us can thrive.
Thank you.