Mr. Wonderful, also known as Kevin O’Leary, has a rather sarcastic take on the latest proposal from New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
O’Leary jokingly applauded the mayor’s plan for a 9.5% property tax increase, calling it “bat cuckoo crazy” and predicting it will earn Mamdani the title of “Real Estate Agent of the Year” soon.
“What he’s suggesting is utterly outlandish, but I find it amusing. You residents here, you’re not contributing enough. You should be paying 110% because cutting spending isn’t on his agenda,” O’Leary commented during an appearance on CNN’s “NewsNight.”
Earlier that day, Mamdani unveiled his ambitious $127 billion preliminary budget, which includes the hefty tax hike.
The proposed increase serves as a warning to Albany and Governor Kathy Hochul, pressing them to approve his desired income tax hike targeting millionaires.
Mamdani clarified that these tax hikes would be a “last resort” if the state government fails to meet his demands.
“The options of the second path are the options of last resort, options that we will only employ if there is no other means of arriving at a balanced budget,” he said.
O’Leary claims Mamdani’s initiatives will push New Yorkers out of the Big Apple in a mass exodus that would benefit his own business in Florida.
“Probably sometime next year, within the next 12 to 18 months, I will meet him in Miami and give him real estate agent of the year award because I’m not happy with what’s happening.
“Everybody from New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts is moving into my neighborhood,” the “Shark Tank” star said about the frustrations with his new neighbors in Miami Beach. “I’m pissed off, and this guy’s just doing more of it.”
An enthusiastic O’Leary was told to stop yelling by host Abby Phillips as the panel discussed income tax hikes in the city over the past 10 years.
“I’m not mad about it, I’m excited, because I want you to pay not me,” O’Leary shot back.
The Post has reached out to City Hall.
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro sided with O’Leary, saying the targeted New Yorkers would find a way to get out of paying the taxes.
“When you put a hike on taxes just on the very wealthy, you run the risk of those very wealthy not paying it because they’ll find a way to have a loophole and skirt those taxes, even if it means moving to Indian Creek (Florida) and living in a billionaire’s bunker,” Navarro said.
“It’s not the person making a million dollars a year, which in New York it’s not as much as it sounds, it’s the person making $50 million that’s moving,” she added.
