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The protest started at Madison Square Park, the place Jeff Bezos spent $96 million creating his Manhattan dream residence.
From there, the small group marched to the Midtown workplaces of Governor Andrew Cuomo with a requirement that has begun to develop louder because the pandemic grinds on: soak the super-rich.
Friday’s demonstration in New York, and others prefer it, haven’t reached something close to the extent of the Occupy Wall Street motion a decade in the past. But this time, protesters have a hometown advocate in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive lawmaker who this week joined a marketing campaign demanding Cuomo move a billionaires’ tax for New York State.
“They take and take and take from our city and do not contribute, proportionally,” stated Molly Glenn, 34, who works in building and joined Friday’s protest. “You want to have an apartment here. You want to say that you are a member of the greatest city in the country. You should have to support the city.”
There are about 100 individuals tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index whose major residence is New York state. Their wealth usually comes from finance — names corresponding to Steve Schwarzman, Jim Simons and Leon Black. But huge New York fortunes have additionally been made in actual property, media and trade. The majority have a number of properties and there’s no assure they’ll stick round if a wealth tax is enacted.
Carl Icahn, born in the Far Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, New York City, has been an icon on Wall Street for many years and is price $18.three billion. He stated in September that he deliberate to relocate his residence and enterprise to Florida to keep away from paying New York’s greater taxes.
That was earlier than Ocasio-Cortez backed the invoice — sponsored by state senator Jessica Ramos — that goals to tax unrealized positive factors on billionaires’ wealth to create an emergency employee bailout fund for poor and undocumented New Yorkers. The invoice will probably be thought-about after the state legislature returns Monday.
Read More: Ocasio-Cortez’ New York Clout Reflected in Progressive Victories
“It’s time to stop protecting billionaires, and it’s time to start working for working families,” Ocasio-Cortez, who represents components of the Bronx and Queens, stated in a video directed at Cuomo. The message unfold on Twitter with the hashtag #MakeBillionairesPay.
AOC has campaigned for greater taxes on the wealthy since bursting on the scene in 2018. Targeting the state stage is a brand new twist. And her supporters and affect inside New York’s Democratic Party is rising. Jamaal Bowman, who’s additionally bashed Bezos, simply beat long-term Representative Eliot Engel in a Democratic major.
Cuomo has beforehand opposed elevating taxes on the rich, however the drumbeat is rising, partly fueled by the coronavirus’s impression on the city. He repeated to reporters on Thursday his opposition to a tax that would drive the rich away.
Priorities Changing
Michael Novogratz, a Democrat who made his fortune in hedge funds, additionally warned that the tax-driven strategy will probably be counterproductive.
“Wealthy people are willing to pay more tax, though it has to be fair,” stated Novogratz, who now invests in digital currencies and in current weeks has been a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter. “The biggest problem with the tax code is some groups pay and other don’t.”
The hazard, Novogratz says, is that those that already pay a considerable share of New York taxes will transfer to lower-tax states, particularly because the pandemic adjustments priorities.
There was already momentum towards leaving New York after the 2017 Republican tax overhaul created a $10,000 restrict for state and native tax deductions, which damage property homeowners. Covid-19, which makes lower-density residing extra enticing, is pushing hordes of others out, he added.
That’s a view shared by Mitchell Moss, a professor of city coverage and planning at New York University.
“No one knows in this climate how people are making location decisions,” Moss stated. “We want to do everything possible to maintain people in New York rather than to encourage them to move to low-density or low-tax locations.”
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