Jim Walden for Mayor of New York City
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Independent Mayoral Candidate Jim Walden Announces Plan To Reform NYC’s Broken Property Tax System

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2025
(646) 705-3286
sara@jimfornyc.com

 

New York, NY… Jim Walden announced his latest policy: a plan to fix New York City’s broken property tax system. With this plan, Walden will shift the property-tax burden away from middle- and lower-income New Yorkers—especially outer-borough families—and toward luxury and high-value properties. Taxes will be tied to transparent, neighborhood-specific market data, with less bureaucracy and fewer loopholes. Even some not-for-profits will contribute their fair share under this simplified system. Seniors will see their taxes frozen at retirement and reduced annually.

Walden, who is running under a ballot line for the Integrity Party, said: “As Mayor, I will actively lead the way to reforming an unfair and confusing property-tax system. I won’t rest until we give New Yorkers what they deserve—transparent, rational and fair taxes. And this plan will give seniors the retirements they earned with lower tax burdens every year. With this plan and all the other reforms I have proposed so far throughout this campaign, I will bring independence and integrity to City Hall.”

The New York City Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform itself has stated that “[w]hile New York City boasts innumerable characteristics of a vibrant metropolis, a fair, simple, and transparent property tax system is not among them.”

Walden’s plan creates a graduated scale of tax rates, which are based on fair-market-sales data, not individualized assessments. The sales data for each property is measured only on local sales of similar properties. High-value properties will pay higher rates. The plan includes a property-tax freeze for seniors, with a guaranteed step down in rates every year. The plan also requires that wealthy not-for-profits contribute their fair share under the new system.

You can read the full Walden plan to reform NYC’s broken property tax system here.

Walden has qualified for November’s ballot, having filed 24,000 independent petition signatures on the “Integrity Party” line, more than 6 times the required minimum to qualify for the ballot and demonstrating broad grassroots support. He is the first independent candidate to qualify for public matching funds in a citywide race, raising almost $3 million. He has been endorsed by the largest labor organization in the city, with 250,000 members. Fifty-eight citywide prosecutors endorsed him, including former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (D) and former U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue (R). He received the first NYPD endorsement of the cycle.

About Jim Walden

Jim Walden learned early that success comes through resilience and hard work while growing up in working-class Levittown, Pennsylvania. Despite an abusive father who abandoned the family when Jim was 14, he graduated near the top of his class while distinguishing himself in debate. His two years in the U.S. Navy’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps earned him dozens of commendations, foreshadowing a lifetime of public service.

It wasn’t easy for Jim to get to college. He spent a year working multiple jobs—from drugstore clerk to fast-food worker—sleeping on a friend’s floor while saving for his education. At Hamilton College, he excelled academically, winning awards for public speaking and campus service, and played rugby. He went to Temple University law school and graduated first in his class. He secured a coveted clerkship with a federal appellate judge in Philadelphia, Anthony Scirica.

As a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, Jim quickly earned a reputation for innovative strategies that made him the go-to prosecutor for FBI and DEA agents, as well as NYPD officers. Focusing on organized crime, his investigations led to more than 100 convictions—including members of all five New York crime families and one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. He helped to solve 25 cold-case homicides. His groundbreaking work against the mafia was featured in two documentaries, National Geographic’s “Inside the American Mob” and Vanity Fair’s “The Disco Inferno.”

Jim built one of New York City’s premier litigation boutiques over a decade, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to public service law. Across his 20+ year career in private practice, his “good government” work has touched many corners of city life, including:

  • Fought for safer schools by forcing the Department of Education to protect bullied school kids
  • Secured $250 million for emergency repairs and better living conditions for over 400,000 NYCHA residents
  • Protected public spaces by stopping illegal parkland transfers in Manhattan and Brooklyn
  • Defended voting rights by successfully challenging gerrymandered voting maps
  • Restored vital food assistance to impoverished New Yorkers
  • Protected hundreds of thousands of city retirees from healthcare cuts
  • Saved emergency care in Southern Brooklyn when SUNY wanted to close a critical hospital

 

Jim’s focus on reform was not just local. He tackled international and national problems as well. Jim also helped expose corruption in international sports, representing whistleblowers who testified about Russian doping during the Olympics and international soccer (FIFA). Jim’s work on the Olympics was featured in the Academy Award winning film “Icarus.” Jim’s work on sports integrity led him to draft a ground-breaking law, the “Rodchenkov Anti-doping Act,” giving the FBI long-arm jurisdiction over doping in international sports competitions, including the Olympics, which President Trump signed into law in December 2020. Nationally, Jim has called for criminal-justice reform in a number of OpEds. He supported women’s right to safe abortions by drafting legislation to give red-state women a path to safe abortions in blue states, which sparked a nationwide campaign joined by the legendary activist Gloria Steinam, Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and Academy Award-winning director Aaron Sorkin, among many other celebrities. Sorkin actually wrote the screenplay for “Molly’s Game,” which featured Idris Elba playing a character based on Jim and his work for Molly Bloom.

While building this career over 30 years and running a thriving law practice, Jim has remained devoted to family and community.He and his wife raised three children in Brooklyn, while financially supporting his sister and her four children. His commitment to public service extends to philanthropic work across numerous issues, and service on an array of not-for-profit boards, demonstrating that success means lifting others as you rise.

Jim’s story—from a challenging childhood to becoming one of New York’s most effective advocates for justice—embodies the spirit of our city: resilient, innovative, and deeply committed to helping others succeed.

For more information: https://jimfornyc.com.