Bloomberg Rails On Albany’s Attack On The Rich (Updated)
Mayor Bloomberg today ripped into Albany for its plans to boost taxes on out-of-state hedge fund managers and reduce tax deductions for charitable contributions made by the very rich (like himself), calling the proposals a “terrible idea” and “crazy,” respectively.
The billionaire mayor called the proposal “the best thing that ever happened to Connecticut,” adding:
“I can’t imagine why every hedge fund wouldn’t pick up tomorrow and move. The first common-sense rule of taxation is: Don’t tax people that can leave.”
“And hedge funds are a bunch of desks with terminals on them. They can be anyplace. We’ve lost a lot of business to connecticut. This will just send more of them. It’s not gonna send everybody. But their clients are going to insist on it. because the economics of their business change. That flows back to the clients. It is just ill-advised, ill-thought out. “
Bloomberg, who gave away more than $250 million last year, called the legislative plan to halve the charitable deduction for people worth $10 million or more from 50 percent to 25 percent “is as crazy as the hedge funds thing,” adding: “We need the private sector to be more generous.”
The Legislature amended the revenue bill to give NYC the option of opting out of the charitable contribution reduction for its PIT.
Bloomberg has long championed the cause of rich New Yorkers. He vehemently opposed the temporary millionaire’s tax approved by the Legislature last year and said he spoke with Gov. David Paterson just this morning to stress that another millionaire’s tax would be a very bad idea.
UPDATE: Additional quotes from Bloomberg, compliments of NY1′s Bobby Cuza:
“The governor said to me this morning when I talked to him, he said he was not in favor of this, that the Legislature had insisted on this raising taxes on the wealthy by cutting back STAR.”
“…And every bit of evidence shows, when you raise taxes or make a deduction less, people give less. and all of this stuff is just going in totally the wrong direction. And next year, if they do a small amount this year, next year is something that people really should worry about. ”
“I’m particularly concerned. I talked to the governor. I talked to (Assembly Speaker) Shelly (Silver). I’ve got a call in to (Senate Democratic Conference Leader) John Sampson to express our views.”
| Print article | This entry was posted by Liz Benjamin on June 30, 2010 at 1:44 pm, and is filed under Albany, David Paterson, Michael Bloomberg, NYS Budget. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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