"Show Mam the Money!" the New York Post's Page One headline blared on Thursday.

Why?

Mayor Mamdani wants to raise taxes on the rich. Deck: "The deficit is down, his programs are funded, but greedy Zohran whines taxes must go up."

The new socialist Muslim mayor wants to raise, by two percentage points, the city income tax rate on those who earn $1 million or more, up to 5.86% from 3.86%.

This amounts to a stunning 52% increase in the tax rate on million-dollar earners.

Calli, "The Mamdani Millionaire Tax."

It would arrive on top of a combined city-state income tax rate now at 14.76% for the rich, raising the combo to 16.76%.

This, plus a federal rate of 37% for a total of almost 54% on all earnings over $1 million.

No problem, "Warmth of Collectivism Mamdani" insists, "The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes."

Maybe so.

But New Yorkers who rake in $10 million a year will see a $200,000 hike, and those earning $25 million will have to pay $500,000 more, every year, the Post reports.

And while they can afford to pay it, the evidence shows they will balk at doing so, and this tax hike will encourage more of the richest taxpayers in New York to leave the city.

An Update!

Mayor Mamdani must find the money to fund his socialist plans for free bus service, government grocery stores, free preschool, and housing assistance.

The city budget faces a $7 billion shortfall over the next two years, and Mamdani just backed off a promise to expand a billion-dollar city program that hands out rental assistance to 140,000 people living in 65,000 households.

It was set to add almost 50,000 new households per year and soar to $17 billion in city funding for the next five years; now it is frozen and the mayor says it may be too expensive.

Raising taxes, however, risks a costly backlash. California just lost Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page last year, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg just bought a riverside mansion in Miami from the founder of the Jersey Mike's sandwich shop chain. For $150 million to $200 million.

This willingness to vote with their feet trickles down to the rest of us.

This writer just moved to South Florida from Brooklyn, New York, where he lived for 43 years. This move will produce a de facto 14.8% raise on any income I earn, now that New York state and city taxes will disappear.

In Oregon, one of the highest-tax states in the nation, the highest-income taxpayers are leaving at an alarming rate. As I learned in researching my next book, "Oregoners," the Portland metropolitan area is losing $1 billion a year in income as people leave.

One owner of a $10 million-a-year business told me he recently was shocked to learn he owed $40,000 for a new Portland Metro tax funding homeless services; he left for rural Oregon.

In Multnomah County, encompassing Portland, voters passed a new tax in 2020 to fund "free" pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds: 1.5% of all income over $125,000, and 3% of income over $250,000.

The results have been a bust.

Multnomah County tracked the 1,000 richest taxpayers who paid this new tax in the first year of 2021— and found that 310 of them weren’t around to pay the tax in 2023.

That's a 31% defection rate in three years.

And for what? Only 3,500 or so kids are expected for the next school year; only 11% of existing preschools have signed up for the program.

Last June, Gov. Tina Kotek, D-Ore., — usually a fan of any and all taxes — called for reforming the Preschool for All tax, saying the program "is breaking beneath its own weight, with at least $485 million in unspent funds combined with spotty implementation, scope creep, and a line of providers waiting on the other side of stacks of paperwork to serve families while tax dollars continue to be collected."

That $485 million in unspent funds has since ballooned to more than $600 million. For a preschool program that spends $100 million or so per year.

And get this: Mayor Mamdani is all in on a new preschool plan of his own, extending coverage all the way down to 2-year-olds.

The city will enroll 2,000 kids in the next school year at a cost of $75 million.

That works out to $37,500 per student, as pricey as some good Manhattan private schools; it is set to grow to 10,000 kids the next year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., has latched on to this handout to take it statewide, offering to pay the city’s bill, initially. But at some point, taxpayers will get hit yet again. Meanwhile, as the city struggles to dig out from mountains of filthy, frozen snow, the weather down here in South Florida, my new home, has been really lovely lately.

Dennis Kneale, a former anchor at CNBC and Fox Business, is host of the "What’s Bugging Me" podcast on Ricochet and author of "The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk." Read more Dennis Kneale Insider articles — Click Here Now.