Bernie Sanders, the independent U.S. senator representing Vermont, rallied thousands at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts on March 29, where his proposal to increase income taxes on billionaires was met with open arms.
In a 30-minute-long speech, Sanders, a Brooklyn native, outlined his proposal to increase income taxes on American billionaires and implored Governor Kathy Hochul to do the same in his native state.
Sanders outlined how income inequality has grown to extremes, especially in New York. “The rich have never had it better,” he said, and implored Hochul to “listen to where the people are at.”
A diverse coalition of about 2,000 people waited in a blocks-long line and filled the auditorium for the “Tax the Rich” rally, which comes as Hochul and lawmakers debate the state budget — and how to close New York City’s $5 billion deficit.
The rally was organized by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) and included elected officials and candidates from the Bronx and beyond, labor organizations including the New York State Nurses Association, PSC-CUNY and 1199 SEIU, the Working Families Party and several more.
Hochul has faced pressure to raise taxes on wealthy people and corporations but has shown reluctance to increase any income taxes.
Meanwhile, in the city, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed a tax increase of two percentage points on households earning more than $1 million annually — a proposal that has 54% support from statewide residents and 62% support in New York City, compared to about 20% opposition, according to a new Siena poll.
Notably, Mamdani did not attend the rally, but Sanders in his speech credited the mayor and his supporters for giving momentum to the concept of redistributing wealth and amplifying the needs of working-class Americans.
“The work you did to elect Zohran … is reverberating all over the world,” Sanders said. “You have given America hope.”
Before the event, the Bronx Times spoke to three friends and native Bronxites, Nicole, Carrie and Sandy, who share a co-op near Lehman and just walked down the street to join the long line.
None were official DSA members but said they consider themselves on the political far left and have participated in similar events, including the No Kings rally the day before.
“The world is a dumpster fire. We need to take ownership,” Nicole said.
Carrie, a city worker, said she fully supports taxing the rich. “If I were making billions, I’d still want to pay my fair share of taxes.”
Sandy said that Trump’s past campaign appearances in the Bronx made her “really pissed off” because of what she perceived to be a weak response from Democrats. Events like the rally, which offered a clear and forceful message of opposition, are “exactly what they should be doing,” she said.
“That tax money [from billionaires ] could do a lot for us,” Carrie said.
‘The need is immediate’
Ryan Bruckenthal, a DSA organizer and special education teacher in Manhattan, spoke to the Bronx Times in the lobby surrounded by candidates and advocacy organizations tabling for supporters.
He told the Bronx Times he cares most about increasing funding for public schools and that tax revenue from the wealthy could accomplish that goal and more.
“For too long, politics has been seen as this thing that other people in power do, and we just have to be subject to what they decide. But really, politics is coming together, walking to our neighbors about what’s important to us,” he said.
The rally was hosted by Julio Torres, an artist and El Salvadorian immigrant, who said New York and Hochul should seize the opportunity to lead the rest of the nation by example.
“Business and job opportunities won’t vanish if we dare to ask for a fairer New York,” Torres said.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams sounded the alarm about working people of color — not billionaires — leaving the city because it is too expensive.
“Someone is going to pay for this budget deficit, and I’m tired of it being the Black and brown and working-class New Yorkers who are actually the ones leaving New York state in droves,” Williams said.
Several Bronx elected officials took the stage together: State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Council Members Althea Stevens and Pierina Sanchez and Assembly Member George Alvarez.
Rivera, who chairs the Senate Health committee, said hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are losing health coverage due to federal cuts and “work requirements that we know are designed to make sure we get people off the system.”
“We have a problem. And how do we fix it?” he said, to which the audience shouted, “Tax the rich!”
Rivera mentioned the bill he introduced to raise capital gains taxes, which would net the state approximately $7 billion annually.
“The need is immediate, the need is real,” he said. As he and the Bronx delegation left the stage, they led the crowd in another chant of, “Tax the rich!”
‘Totally rigged’
Sanders entered to a long ovation, with the crowd chanting his name. But he said, “It’s not Bernie, it’s all of you.”
He and Rep. Ro Khanna of California recently introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, which would establish a 5% tax on 938 American billionaires, generating an estimated $4.4 trillion over the next decade.
The bill would bring direct relief to American families while allowing the government to substantially invest in healthcare, education and more.
Under the bill, each person in households earning less than $150,000 would receive a $3,000 payment in the first year, he said.
In the longer term, Sanders said the bill would establish a $60,000 minimum salary for American public school teachers, build and rehabilitate more than seven million affordable homes, ensure a 7% family income spending cap for child care, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing for seniors and roll back the Trump cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act program.
The country’s richest people are also the most under-taxed, paying a relative fraction of what working families pay, Sanders said.
He said if his bill had been in effect last year, Elon Musk would have paid $42 billion in taxes, “leaving him just $792 billion to survive!” Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg would have owed $11 billion, leaving him “a meager $209 billion to feed his family.”
Sanders lamented that working-class families like his in Brooklyn, where his father worked as a salesman and his mother stayed home with the kids, were becoming increasingly rare.
Trends over time have left working families worse off than in his youth, he said. “What the hell has happened? Why have we gone backwards?”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
