Nolte: Democrat-run New York City Loses 16% of Top Taxpayers

A building, center, owned by New York Mayor Eric Adams, located at 936 Lafayette Avenue in
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

A study shows that New York City has lost 10 percent of taxpayers earning over $750,000 and 6 percent of those who make between $150,000 and $750,000.

Nevertheless, leftists emboldened by the midterm elections are calling for even more tax increases on the wealthy:

A new city analysis shows that a huge chunk of high-income earners fled in 2020. Yet progressives refuse to hear the alarm bell: They’re pushing to “tax the rich” yet again instead.

The study by the city’s Independent Budget Office shows a 10% plunge in taxpayers who made over $750,000, and 6% of those with incomes between $150,000 and $750,000. These now-former New Yorkers will no longer pay hefty taxes to the city or state, leaving significantly less revenue to fund progressives’ pet projects.

Clearly, many taxpayers fled to escape New York’s off-the-chart taxes. 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.

Funny how you don’t see people fleeing places run by conservatives.

This is why the left hates freedom. This is why leftists like Fidel Castro have to create a prison state, which is what Cuba is. This is why the left hates states’ rights. This is why the left embraces the fascism of one-size-fits-all centralized power.

It drives the left crazy that if Americans are unhappy with the left’s terrible policies, we can just up and flee to another state with different policies. This drives them crazy for two reasons: 1) they can no longer boss us around and steal our money to fund their self-dealing do-gooder programs, and 2) people fleeing their policies proves their ideas are unpopular and a failure.

This is why it is so important for individual states to be as self-governing as possible.

Americans must have a place to go if their current state (or city) becomes hostile to them.

If leftists in Florida are unhappy living among people who do not have to follow Dr. Fauci’s fascist China Flu protocols, they can always move to the hellscape of Los Angeles or Manhattan.

Suppose people in Manhattan and Los Angeles are tired of high taxes, crime, violence, feces, a lack of housing, tent cities, bad schools, and illegal aliens being allowed to vote. In that case, they can always move to Florida or Mississippi, or some other sane place.

Once we lose the autonomy of the states (which is the left’s goal), there’s no place left to go. Elon Musk may figure it out on another planet, but not on my lifetime. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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