(NY Governor) Cuomo Pushes New Tax Rates for Big Earners

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Kathryn S. Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, a network of business leaders, said that Mr. Cuomo was “appropriately changing the terms of debate from the class warfare language of the millionaires’ tax advocates to focus on tax reform that promotes universal fairness.”

“He knows it is possible to raise revenues without inflammatory rhetoric that drives business and wealth out of the state,” Ms. Wylde said. She added that because lawmakers had moved this year “in the direction of showing they could exercise some discipline over spending,” the business community would support a “balanced approach” of spending cuts and new revenues as Mr. Cuomo drew up his next budget.

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Governor Andrew Cuomo opposes the extension of the millionaire’s tax, actually a tax on individuals who make at least $200,000 and families that make at least $300,000. He thinks it would place New York at a competitive disadvantage with its neighbors.

I respect the governor, but that’s a canard. As Robert Frank explained last February in The Wall Street Journal, the number of millionaires in New York actually increased in 2010 (when the tax was in place): “New York had 381,197 millionaires in 2010, an increase of 35,000 millionaires from 2009.”

In that same article, Mr. Frank quoted Kathryn Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City (which opposed the tax extension), as saying that even if the numbers don’t support the theory that rich people are flocking to other states, there is some anecdotal evidence that they are. “Our evidence is from conversations with lots of high earners and there is an increasing tendency to gravitate to lower-tax places,” she said.

If it’s anecdotal evidence the Partnership wants, here’s what Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also known as the richest man in New York City, said in 2008: “I can only tell you, among my friends, I’ve never heard one person say ‘I’m going to move out of the city because of taxes.’ Not one. Not in all the years I’ve lived here.” (Despite this astute observation, Mr. Bloomberg opposes the tax.)

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