Whether it’s wealthy people fleeing to their second homes or college students forced to move back in with their parents, crime soaring and homeless people everywhere imploded New York City. To make matters worse, New York City is losing its top taxpayers.
A staggering number of wealthy Americans fled New York in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, departing the state with the highest tax burden in the nation, according to new data.
The number of New Yorkers earning between $150,000 and $750,000 fell by about 6% between 2019 and 2020.
The decline is even starker among higher earners: The number of Individuals earning more than $750,000 plunged by nearly 10% during that same time period, according to income and tax liability data released by the city Independent Budget Office this week.
The New York Post first reported the news.
“Yet the radicals who increasingly dominate local politics want to slam those who haven’t left even more: Last Monday, a group of advocates and elected officials launched a campaign for a ludicrous $40 billion in new taxes on the rich,” said a recent Post editorial.
And the latest study by the Budget Office only included data up to 2020. There’s no telling how many more have left since the COVID lockdowns that crushed the city.
New York has been grappling with an exodus of high-income earners since former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law placed a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Many of the wealthy residents — including billionaire investor Carl Icahn — are leaving for lower-tax destinations like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.
While it’s unclear whether the departure of rich individuals in 2020 is directly linked to the high tax burden in New York, the loss of wealthy residents dinged the city’s income tax collection. In fact, the 41,000 filers in the top 1% pay more than 40% of all income taxes. Another two-thirds is paid by about 450,000 individuals in the top 10%, while the remaining 90% pays the final third.
The Internal Revenue Service previously reported that about 300,000 of New York City’s wealthiest residents who left the city in 2020 collectively earned $21 billion in total income in 2021.
More details of this report from DailyWire:
So as chaos rules, the New York City Police Department was forced to cut $69 million from its $5.6 billion budget by leaving open positions vacant. The city’s Department of Education also cut $153 million from its $31 billion budget, the Post reported.
In the runup to the 2022 midterm elections, former New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson said he feels like the city is a dangerous place.
“I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” the ex-governor and lifelong New Yorker told host John Catsimatidis on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable,” the Post reported.
“For the first time in my life, even in the late ’80s and ’90s when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” he said.
The mayor is finally getting serious about the exploding homeless situation. He told The New York Times he wants to get them off the streets — involuntarily if necessary.
“As a city, we have a moral obligation to support our fellow New Yorkers and stop the decades-long practice of turning a blind eye towards those suffering from severe mental illness,” Adams said.
“It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past them,” he added.
But that’ll be difficult as the largest cut proposed in Adams’ budget, $201 million, would come from the Department of Social Services.
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