Right about now, everyone who voted for New York City Democratic-Socialist Mayor Zohran "Commie" Mamdani are waking up to a fundamental truth: Nothing is free, so when a politician promises "free" stuff, taxpayers foot the bill.

Former Reagan staffer and Federalist Society founder David McIntosh observed that the new mayor is raising property taxes to nearly 10% to pay for some pet projects that include:

• $5.6 million for the Office of Racial Equity
• $4.6 million for the Commission on Racial Equity
• $835K for the Commission on Gender Equity

And while Mamdani has been in office less than three months, he's already facing a huge budget deficit.

To help him out of the dilemma, he’s now eyeing the property of dead people.

Mamdani proposes to lower the estate tax threshold from $7.3 million to $750,000, and increase the top tax rate to 50%, which would significantly impact even middle-class families.

To illustrate just how onerous his proposal is, the highest federal estate tax rate is 40%, and it applies to the value of an estate that exceeds $15 million.

Mamdani's proposal has been labeled "cruel" by some critics, and "grave robbing" by others, and will likely prompt wealthier New Yorkers who already pay the lion's share of the city's tax burden, to leave the Big Apple — for good.

That's not to say that he's against spending cuts — but his cuts have raised more than a few eyebrows.

Last month Mamdani proposed cutting the New York Police Department budget by $22 million, and he canceled plans to hire an additional 5,000 officers, citing a significant city budget gap.

Less police protection may be another reason to leave the city.

One favored destination for New Yorkers fleeing the city is Florida, which taxes neither a decedent's estate, nor an heir's inheritance.

It also has no personal income tax, and a moderate 5.5% corporate income tax.

That difference prompted Geiger Capital, which reports on markets, economics, and politics, to make some comparisons between New York City and the state of Florida.

"Zohran Mamdani just proposed a preliminary budget of $127 Billion for NYC," they reported.

"The entire state of Florida is $117 Billion."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, did a little nose-tweaking by adding this into the equation:

"FL = 23+ million people," he began.

"NYC = 8 million people."

So $127 billion for New York City’s 8 million people equates to $15,875 per person.

Whereas a $117 billion budget for Florida’s 23 million residents equates to $5,087 per person — less than a third.

And because of that difference, many New Yorkers have relocated in red states like Florida.

Earlier this month Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared on a forum hosted by Politico and begged wealthy former New Yorkers to return.

“I need people who are high-net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state, right?” Hochul said.

“But maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.”

Less than four years earlier Hochul was singing a different tune. She all but kicked wealthy conservatives out the door as not being her kind of people — not being true New Yorkers.

"[Donald] Trump and [Lee] Zeldin and [Marc] Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values," Hochul said.

"You're not New Yorkers, because we come from a long line of people who fought for women's rights that happened here first," Hochul added.

The late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously observed that, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

It looks like New York — both the city and the state — has finally run out of other people's money, and yes, that’s the problem with socialism.

And there's no such thing as "enough" to socialists.

No matter how much they have, they always want more.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He's also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read more Michael Dorstewitz Insider articles — Click Here Now.