Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to hike New York’s corporate tax — if enacted — could cause an exodus of firms and residents across the Hudson to New Jersey, the head of the Big Apple’s top business group warned.  The fool will hurt NYC and the state.

     “I don’t think the tax conversation is productive because we are going to be 100% higher than New Jersey if we take that proposal. New Jersey’s current corporate tax rate is 11%. If we do what the Mayor has recommended, will be at 22% – 100% over New Jersey,” Steve Fulop, the new CEO of the Partnership for The City of New York said Sunday on 77 WABC’s the “Cats Roundtable” program.

     “People don’t have to move to Texas or Florida. They can just move a mile away, which is a real risk for the economy here in New York. People want to be in New York, but you have to have an economy that’s competitive. We’re getting close to a place that it isn’t,” he told host John Catsimatidis.  Fulop knows the competitive dynamics between New York and New Jersey well. He’s the former mayor of Jersey City just across the Hudson River, where many residents pay cheaper rents and commute to jobs in Manhattan via the PATH train.

     Mamdani has said his recommended corporate tax rate hike from 7.25%. to 11.5% would equal New Jersey’s.  But New York City’s top combined marginal corporate income tax rate — which includes other levies such as an MTA corporate surcharge — would rise from 17.44% to 22.48%, if Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature approve Mamdani’s recommended hike to help close a multi-billion dollar shortfall and fund his ambitious free stuff agenda, Fulop said.