Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, February 28th.

Today on Forbes, New York City's proposed 9.5% real estate tax hike hits a national nerve.

In New York City, property taxes are back in the headlines.

Mayor's Oran Mamdani has floated the idea of raising them by 9.5% as part of this year's

budget. Mamdani says it's a last resort, claiming that if Albany won't raise taxes on millionaires,

the city may have to raise them on property instead. Property taxes have long been a political landmine because of their impact on

household finances, including on your federal income tax return. Property taxes, more properly

called real estate taxes, are local taxes imposed on real estate based on its assessed value

and are primarily used to fund schools and other local

government services, including sanitation, police and fire departments, parks, and street repairs.

According to the Tax Foundation, in fiscal year 2022, property taxes accounted for 27.4% of total

state and local tax collections in the United States,

more than any other category of tax revenue.

Local governments rely even more heavily on them.

Property taxes accounted for 70.2% of local tax collections in fiscal year 2022.

State and local governments favor property taxes because they provide a relatively steady income

stream.

The tax base doesn't move, and it rarely shrinks significantly.

Houses and commercial properties don't relocate across state lines, and over time, property

values tend to rise rather than fall. Every city or county has an

assessor's office. Its job is to determine what your property is worth, typically what it would

sell for in an ordinary market transaction. For houses and condos, that usually means reviewing

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