Posted on 04/08/2008 4:22:06 PM PDT by paltz
ALBANY (CBS) ― Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan may be dead, but Assembly Democrats do have a plan to raise money for mass transit: tax the rich.
It's what Albany calls a "millionaire's tax."
Yes, billionaires like Bloomberg will ante up, too.
Under the plan, people who earn over $1 million in New York state will pay an income tax surcharge of about 3/4 of 1 percent for five years. In all, it would raise over $5 billion for mass transit.
Supporters say that of the 75,000 affected taxpayers, about 35,000 don't live in New York.
"They could be ballplayers at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Madison Square Garden," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told CBS 2 HD. "They could be Wall Street people who live in Greenwich, Conn., or Princeton, N.J."
And with everyone scratching their heads Tuesday about how to fund mass transit, Gov. David Paterson named former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch to head a commission to look for revenues.
"I am announcing there will be a blue ribbon commission," Paterson said.
Ravitch told CBS 2 HD that he's up to the challenge.
"Obviously, it's a tougher task with the defeat of congestion pricing because that would have provided 20 percent of what the apparent needs are," he said.
Although Bloomberg wouldn't support the so-called "millionaire's tax," Ravitch is open to it.
"Any revenue – any hockable, borrowable revenue – is a good thing," he said. "I take it any way the Legislature wants to give it to me."
Commuters are thrilled with the idea.
"It's a good thing – they should pay their fair share," Manhattan resident Michael Neal said.
Added Manhattan resident Janice Bastuni: "I think it would be a wonderful thing to pay. The mass transit system needs it."
And an interesting side note: 18 percent of the new revenue would come from the 426 taxpayers who make more than $35 million a year, with Bloomberg, of course, being one of them.
Moron.
This is truly one of the stupidest tax-related ideas I’ve heard in a long time.
Millionaires tend not to take the subway. Why, then, should they have to pay for it?
Oh yeah, because they can. Of couuuuuuuuurse. *sigh*
And what happens if those 426 taxpayers decide to move?
They’ll lose a heck of lot more than 18%.
Morons.
That's exactly what they are already doing to a great extent.
He should fund NYC mass transit, by himself.
lower than whale sh!t.
un-be-lievable.
Somewhere, the founding fathers are turning in their graves.
Millionaire’s Tax could make all the high net worth people move out of NYC to Jersey or Long Island; or out of the country.
LIARS!!!!!!
Just like the liars who gave us the telephone tax to fund only the spanish- american war, because only rich people had phones...how many years did the telephone tax AFTER that war ended?
This is the sort of thinking that in the nineteen sixties led the movers-and-shakers in Germany, France, Italy and the U.K. to seek their fortures elsewhere. The result was a huge economic benefit to the USA. I guess it is now time that the stupid political leadership of this nation returns the favor.
I am announcing there will be a blue ribbon commission,” Paterson said.
___________________________________________________
NOW WHO THE HE-L IS GOING TO PAY FOR THE BLUE RIBBON???
Ballloombaberg is going nuts, screwing NYC with never ending tax “ideas”.
The Pennsylvania Sales Tax started as the Johnstown Flood relief tax in 1936.
That's when they will redefine millionaire to mean anyone making over $12K/year.
I was thinking the same thing. I wouldn’t doubt this hasn’t already started happening in some areas around the country.
It goes with saying that it’s kind of a no-brainer to oppose a new tax, especially one that’s introduced draped in such blatant class-warfare rhetoric. However...
I do think it deserves to be said that when it comes to mass transit in this town, there is an X-factor that goes just a little deeper than knee-jerk reactions to taxation. Millionaires may not take the subway, but one could make a pretty strong argument that most millionaires likely have assets that are plugged into the financial services industry in one form or another. And that real estate values in this town, particularly commercial real estate values, have a little something to do with the ability of people to easily get to their jobs via mass transit.
The MTA is a sick, corrupt joke, but while I think we can live with Penn Station the sorry way it is since it’s been that way for so long, it’s pretty darned important that the Second Avenue Subway be realized. The conditions on the Lexington Avenue line are downright disgusting, if not dangerous, and if there’s one neighborhood in the city that investment banker-types tend to favor, it’s the Upper East Side.
Which is nearly 50% larger than the West Side, where there are two subway lines, to only one across town. Getting to work can be an extremely uncomfortable prospect, and rendering it more comfortable should pay dividends in spades. All those high-rises that went up after the Third Avenue El was dismantled are populated with quite a few people who dread taking the subway on a daily basis due to the ridiculous overcrowding—which would only get worse if the Long Island Rail Road starts running trains that terminate at Grand Central Station.
None of this is meant to let Bloomberg off the hook, but I do think the MTA is a far worse culprit here, having mismanaged projects up, down, backwards & forwards. The Fulton Street project is a fiasco possibly on the level of the Big Dig. On that basis alone the idea of a new tax is additionally repulsive. But I do think a few words are well spent pointing out that this city’s economy is tied to mass transit in a way that some may well take for granted. I happen to put a premium on providing the easiest way for financial services workers to get to and from their jobs as easily as possible. Does that justify this? Perhaps not, but I certainly want to hear a little more about it before I issue a blanket condemnation.
They already have that issue covered: "Supporters say that of the 75,000 affected taxpayers, about 35,000 don't live in New York."
Politicians who have never held a private sector job have no idea how the real world works. Therefore, their opinions on financial matters is worthless.
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