DeB: WHO NEEDS YOUR STINKIN’ $$
Dismisses flight of city’s wealthy tax base
Let them leave.
That was the blunt message Mayor de Blasio had for well-heeled New Yorkers fleeing the city because of the coronavirus, rising crime, unemployment and other factors — even though the top 1 percent of earners pay nearly half the Big Apple’s income taxes.
A reporter asked Hizzoner during a virtual City Hall press briefing on Monday for his plan to stem the tide of deep-pocketed constituents abandoning the city.
“I don’t understand honestly how any New Yorkers can participate in the discussion about these fears about the future of New York City,” de Blasio said.
“I don’t mind having fear. I don’t mind having questions. But if you don’t think New York City is coming back,
York City.”
De Blasio also predicted that those wealthy New Yorkers would return as the city recovered.
“Some people may decide they want to go somewhere else for a period of time, and as the situation in New York City improves, they’ll come back. Some people may not, and I guarantee you they’ll be replaced by others who will bring a lot of creativity and talent,” the mayor said.
“If folks miss the theater, if they miss the indoor dining, those things will be back. They’ll be back next year at some point,” he said.
Despite his bravado over the exodus, de Blasio admitted he was not planning that far ahead right now because he was focused on more immediate matters, like reopening schools on Sept. 10.
“I think when we get into the fall that’s exactly the time to really talk about the future of the city, the bigger vision for our economy and our people . . . and what everyone needs to do to bring the city back,” he said.
Mayoral press secretary Bill Neidhardt gave a more succinct response about rich New Yorkers jumping ship.
“Kick rocks billionaires,” Neidhardt tweeted earlier this month in response to a New York Times article about the city’s shrinking tax base that covers basic government services.
New York’s highest income earners, making more than $710,000, pay 43 percent of the city’s and 51 percent of the state’s incomes taxes — or more than the lowest-earning 90 percent combined, according to the Empire Center.
The state faces massive deficits due to the impacts of the coronavirus crisis.
Business leaders, including ones who frequently work with City Hall, have said de Blasio’s remarks are counterproductive to recovery efforts.
“It’s a big concern that we’re going to lose more of our tax base than we’ve already lost,” Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership
for New York City, said recently on WABC-AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
She warned that wealthy New Yorkers would stay in the Hamptons or Palm Beach, Fla., if local taxes increase.
“The threats of raising taxes on the wealthy. That concerns me, because we should be . . . trying to figure out how to get the half-million people who left the city for the COVID . . . to come back,” she said.
It’s not just the super rich who are heading for the exits. Moving companies say they have been overwhelmed by the avalanche of business since June.
Moon Salahie, owner of Elite Moving & Storing in Yonkers, said most of his recent customers have been middle-class families decamping to the suburbs because they are worried about the school year.
“The least movement would be the Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue crowds,” Salahie told The Post. “Those people don’t have to leave because they have second homes.”