Zohran Mamdani has called for taxing the rich to close New York City’s large budget deficit. His position is popular with most New Yorkers, but wealthy City Council Speaker Julie Menin (above) is giving cover to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to raise taxes…. Menin’s leadership on the council appears to represent a form of magical thinking, an attempt to undercut the momentum around and popularity of Mamdani’s demand to tax the rich to create a sustainable source of revenue. Menin’s announcement on Wednesday shows her refusing to engage with the material conditions facing New York. Whether it’s because of pure ideological commitment or her own class interests, Menin seems willfully blind to the real options for dealing with the country’s largest city’s big budget problem.