The Nor'easter: Don’t Tax the Rich

It’s a tough job being mayor of New York City, especially these days. Facing a $3 billion deficit, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has to make the tough decisions on where and what to cut.
The Nor'easter: Don’t Tax the Rich
Evan Mantyk
5/24/2011
Updated:
5/24/2011

Commentary

It’s a tough job being mayor of New York City, especially these days. Facing a $3 billion deficit, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has to make the tough decisions on where and what to cut.

Understandably, he has spread the pain. Twenty fire companies, 6,000 teacher jobs, and part of the NYPD’s pensions are all on the chopping block. On top of that there are cuts to senior care, child care, homeless shelters, libraries, parks, and pools.

It’s no wonder that the latest Quinnipiac University poll puts Bloomberg’s approval rating at a low 40 percent, versus 49 percent who think he’s doing a bad job.

The complaints over cuts are usually quite moving: New Yorkers’ quality of life will get lower, school children’s education will further deteriorate, and the quality of potentially lifesaving firefighting services will be sacrificed to save money.

However, alternative solutions to paying the city’s bills are less convincing. There are claims that the city is wasting funds on overpriced and negligent consultants. This is certainly true in the case of the CityTime scandal, in which consultants skimmed around $80 million from the city’s failed attempt to computerize its payroll system. In general, though, you can’t blame the mayor for others’ crimes. And, with a city that is larger in population than many countries and spends $60 billion a year, some waste is unfortunately expected.

The most substantive rebuff of the mayor’s cuts is to tax the rich. Bloomberg, himself a billionaire, has always maintained that this is a bad idea. If the rich are heavily taxed, he says, they may just leave the city and go somewhere else where the tax burden isn’t so crushing, say Connecticut for example. With them go their tax dollars and all the money they spend in the city.

Since the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008, the tax-the-rich mantra has gained traction in the city as well as throughout the country. President Obama got elected that year telling people up front that he was willing to raise taxes on people making over $200,000 a year.

A recent ABC/Washington Post poll found that taxing those making $250,000 or more a year is the most popular method among Americans for paying off the federal deficit, beating out military cuts, and social services cuts.

This is crazy. It doesn’t take any special economic research to figure out that disproportionately taxing the rich is a dead end. Bloomberg’s example of rich New Yorkers fleeing the city can be extended to rich Americans fleeing the country, using politicians to create new tax loopholes, and further turning their backs on the American public.

The problem here is with the perspective.

Let me give you an example. There is a bush I pass everyday on the way to the train. During the winter, the bush consists of a few hideous, gnarled branches, which at their ends are covered in small spike-like protrusions reminiscent of the Hellraiser movies. Around this time of year, tiny green shoots make their way out of the spikes. As the year goes by this bush transforms into a gorgeous sight, bearing voluptuous and decadent white foliage.

Then tell me, which part of the bush is better, the branches that support the bush (middle class) or the pleasant-looking foliage (the rich)? It’s a dumb question. Of course the foliage looks nicer, but you can’t have one without the other. They both make the bush.

New Yorkers need to focus on what unites us. Appeal to the philanthropist and humanitarian in every rich New Yorker’s heart, but don’t force on them anything more than you would force on yourself in your most selfish moment.

Divided we are neither branch nor foliage. Together, we are gorgeous.

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Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.
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