New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Thursday continued his push for a tax on wealthy New Yorkers after Gov. Andrew Cuomo publicly pleaded for rich city dwellers to return to the city after they left to stay at their second homes during the heights of the coronavirus pandemic.
“To the point about the folks out in the Hamptons, I have to be very clear about this," the mayor said in a press briefing, reports Politico. "We do not make decisions based on the wealthy few. I was troubled to hear this concept that because wealthy people have a set of concerns about the city that we should accommodate them, that we should build our policies and approaches around them. That’s not how it works around here anymore.”
De Blasio wants to tax rich New Yorkers to help close the huge budget gaps that have taken place because of the pandemic, especially if federal aid doesn't arrive. But Cuomo says the tax hikes would chase away even more of the wealthy.
"I literally talk to people all day long who are in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, 'You gotta come back, when are you coming back?'" he said on Monday. "We'll go to dinner, I'll buy you a drink ... Come over, I'll cook.'"
But the wealthy are staying away because they don't want to pay the city's surcharge, said Cuomo.
De Blasio also said he thinks many people who relocated won't return until a vaccine for COVID-19 is available, but those people likely will be replaced by others who won't be "fair-weather friends."
But wealthy New Yorkers "can afford to pay a little bit more so that everyone else can make it through this crisis," said the mayor.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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