From my presentation at yesterday's Manhattan Institute "Market Meltdown" conference, a chart depicting the 10-year trend in public pension fund contributions by New York State and City taxpayers: Pension contributions over the past eight years ha Read More
High-income New Yorkers are probably the least stable, consistent and reliable segment of the city's income tax base. According to state tax data, there were 49,000 city households with adjusted gross income of more than $500,000 as of 2007. They earned $135 billion that year. Read More
Bill de Blasio seems poised to waltz into Gracie Mansion largely on the strength of his proposal for a soak-the-rich income tax hike. But the tax increase would need approval in Albany, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to position himself as a moderate tax-cutter for his 2014 re-election bid. So the governor is doing his best to discourage de Blasio, warning that a city tax increase would prompt wealthy New Yorkers to flee to Florida. Read More
No city in America can match New York’s broad array of taxes—more typical of a state than of a municipal government. Most New York City residents and businesses are subject to combined state and local tax rates far exceeding national norms. Such high taxes are a headwind against economic growth: they add to overhead, cut into profits, and make it costlier to employ people. Read More
If Bill de Blasio becomes New York City's first Democratic mayor in 20 years, the liberal politician would soon find himself immersed in labor talks that could saddle the city with a $7 billion bill for retroactive wage increases for municipal workers... Read More
New York imposes the nation’s heaviest big-city tax burden — which, in turn, is a major component of the Big Apple’s notoriously high cost of living. Read More
Eliot Spitzer is asking voters to forget what he did after dark and focus instead on the supposedly stellar way he handled his day job. Read More
By a variety of measures, New York is easily the nation's most heavily taxed big city. In devising a strategy for competing economically on both a global and regional basis, New York’s next mayor needs to recognize that the city can’t tax with impunity... Read More