New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani claims that the city budget has a $5.4 billion shortfall, and one of the ways he proposes to close that gap is by changing the state's estate tax laws.

At present, New York imposes a death tax of 16 percent on estates worth more than $7 million. Mamdani wants to lower that threshold to estates worth only $750,000; he's proposing increasing the tax to 50 percent, and the tax would be imposed not only on the assets in excess of $750,000 but on the entirety of the estate.

That may sound like a lot of money to some, but to put things in perspective, the average price of a single-family home in Staten Island or Queens is more than $700,000. In Westchester County, it's more than $800,000. In other words, a married couple who bought a home 30 or 40 years ago, paid off their mortgage, and saw the value of that asset appreciate over the years will not be able to leave that property to their children - or anyone else - when they die. It will have to be sold, and half the proceeds given to the government.

For most homeowners, their home is their single most valuable asset, and its appreciation in value is the greatest source of any increase in personal wealth. Mamdani's estate tax proposal would absolutely gut that.

But it would not just be homes that are affected. The average value of a farm in New York state is around $700,000. A small gas station could be valued at anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000. A nail salon in New York City averages between $300,000 and $1 million.

Unsurprisingly,........

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