What Blas won’t tell Dems: His spending in NYC is killing the middle class

By Nicole Gelinas August 4, 2019

At Wednesday’s Democratic debate, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that when he is president — ha! — “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.” It’s New York, though, that is the tax hellscape. Not so much for the super-rich, who can make a rational decision whether to pay high taxes or leave, but for middle-class and working-class folks who are stuck here.

Hizzoner ran for his first term promising a tax hike on the 1 percent, yes, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo wouldn’t let him, hardly a great sign that a President de Blasio could get Congress to agree. Nope, New York’s income taxes were high, and progressive, before de Blasio. The top city rate — nearly 3.9 percent of income, plus state and federal taxes of between 44 and 46 percent — applies to people making more than half a million dollars a year.

People paying this top rate — about 61,500 households — paid just more than half of the Big Apple’s income taxes in 2015, or close to $5.6 billion, according to city data. Households making more than $10 million — “only” 1,400 — paid 17 percent of the city’s income taxes in 2016.........To Read More....