As New York City faces a $30 billion shortfall, the state’s top two political leaders have vastly different ideas about how to stop the bleeding. Governor Andrew Cuomo is begging wealthy New Yorkers to return after high taxes and rising violence caused a massive wealth flight. The mayor of the Big Apple, Bill de Blasio, however, has basically given former residents the middle finger.
“The wealthy have become more global, in many ways, much less rooted. They will come, they will go,” Mayor de Blasio said nonchalantly at a press conference. “I am not going to beg anybody to live in the greatest city in the world.” The liberal mayor has ushered in a massive decline in quality of life for residents, escalating riots, looting violence, shootings, and skyrocketing debt. According to a New York City comptroller report, debt has shot up from “$39.55 billion in FY 2000 to $91.56 billion in FY 2019, an increase of 132 percent.”
New York has hamstrung residents with tax increases that exceeded 170 percent during that period. It’s no wonder that wealthy residents now use bordering Connecticut as a bedroom community or have fled south to low-tax GOP-run states like Florida. Radicals like de Blasio, who joyfully defund police departments, have also inspired unprecedented crime rampages.
“The year-over-year increase in those crimes is more pronounced than any in more than two decades, according to the police, and the problem seems to be intensifying. Shooting incidents were up 201 percent in the four-week period ended Aug. 2, compared with the same period in 2019, while the number of shooting victims rose 165 percent, and the number of homicides climbed by 50 percent,” according to a Wall Street Journal report on New York City crime.
Other statistical reports indicate that as of August 9, New York City suffered 833 shooting incidents and 1,017 victims. That figure is nearly as much as 2019 and 2018 combined during the same period. Keep in mind that the city was shuttered for a large portion of the year. Had it not been for the shelter in place mandate, shooting incidents would likely be even higher.
Although de Blasio prefers to play the part of Roman Emperor Nero and watch the city burn, Governor Andrew Cuomo has practically fallen to his knees begging one-percenters to return.
“You’ve got to come back! We’ll go to dinner! I’ll buy you a drink! Come over, I’ll cook. They’re not coming back right now. And you know what else they’re thinking? ‘If I stay there, I pay a lower income tax,’ because they don’t pay the New York City surcharge,” Gov. Cuomo said. “Our population, one percent of the population (of NYC) pays 50 percent of the taxes.”
It may seem pathetic at this point for high-minded Democrats to suddenly wake up to the fact that taxes are crushing, and services are almost non-existent. After all, de Blasio openly demonstrated his disdain for the men and women of the NYPD as he backed Antifa and BLM protestors over them.
New York City also incurred an additional $30 billion in debt due to the lockdowns, health crisis, and disrupted businesses. Mayor de Blasio’s advice: “We should immediately return to Albany to the discussion, put a tax on wealthy New Yorkers.”
Gov. Cuomo’s please come back plea may be shameless, but at least he’s figured out that taxpayers aren’t going to be treated unfairly.
