[frankthetank]

Cube-

Trane company here in La Crosse (huge employer) is owned by Ingersoll-Rand which is based out of Bermuda... They have a mailbox there that has saved them billions... What a crock of shit.

Pretty soon the middle will disappear (the jobs will go with them) and the rich will move to their tax havens and watch from afar with remote webcams and streaming video and laugh while frolicking on the beach...

[Javaman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Consensi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', '[')url=http://wcbstv.com/local/michael.bloomberg.income.2.856839.html]Bloomberg: NYC Income Tax Could Rise 15 Percent[/url]

NYC mayor: Can't afford $400 property tax rebates

Remember, its your patriotic duty! And since the city never sleeps, you can work two jobs and help spread the wealth around!

[AlexdeLarge]

MTA To Toll All East River Bridges

Cash-Strapped MTA About To Drop Hammer On Everyone.

Feeling that tingle yet? How about this one!

'If I had a nickel for every bag"

Mayor Bloomberg wants to nickel and dime you at the grocery store - taxing you an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag you take home.

They are just getting warmed up..........now they will get creative in tapping your wallet! LOL

[Snowrunner]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', 'M')ayor Bloomberg wants to nickel and dime you at the grocery store - taxing you an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag you take home.

They are just getting warmed up..........now they will get creative in tapping your wallet! LOL

[Tyler_JC]

The People of New York have an extremely expensive infrastructure to maintain.

They also have higher incomes, higher property values, higher standards of living, more job opportunities, etc.

There's always a tradeoff.

If you don't like the tax burden of maintaining the city, move to Idaho.

New York City is rich partly because of government investment. The transportation infrastructure allows higher population density and faster commuting times. Both of which increase wealth.

It is expensive to live in the City because lots of people want to live in the City. (Duh!)

Why would anyone want to live in New York if the place was overrun by criminals and falling apart?



Top line is total population.

Blue=Manhatten
Green=Brooklyn
Orange=Queens
Red=Bronx
Purple=Staten Island

In the 1970s, the City fell apart. They cut spending on everything and quality of life collapsed. Needless to say, people moved out in droves.

The City is trying to avoid doing that again this time. If it means higher taxes, so be it.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')he People of New York have an extremely expensive infrastructure to maintain.
....

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')he People of New York have an extremely expensive infrastructure to maintain.
....

[nobodypanic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', ' ')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')he People of New York have an extremely expensive infrastructure to maintain.
....

[Consensi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', '
')NY should tax those high class socialites right out of their Central Park mansions?

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Consensi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', '
')NY should tax those high class socialites right out of their Central Park mansions?

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '
')
The very wealthy in the United States are disproportionately located in and around NYC. They can be taxed at a much higher rate if need-be in order to keep the city functioning.

[AlexdeLarge]

Class warfare, anti-semitism and a tax system that can be used as means of redistribution of wealth. All we need is a charismatic leader to play on the fear of the masses with the power of a bureacracy that reaches into every aspect of life to enforce his/her mandates. Next provide the catalyst to bring it all together(ie economic collapse)

Interesting things are about to happen....................

[Tyler_JC]

A federal government redistributing wealth is much different than a city government redistributing wealth.

The people who benefit most from New York City should pay for a proportionate part of the upkeep of the city.

Or they can let the city go to hell and watch their property values collapse.

If you don't adequately fund the federal government, it doesn't directly influence the quality of life of the rich. But if you don't adequately fund your city, your quality of life will quickly plummet.

I would be willing to pay more in taxes to fund my local government. I know where the money is going and I know that it is being spent on projects that directly benefit me (better transportation infrastructure, better police and fire protection, etc.)

I am NOT willing to pay more in taxes to fund the federal government. The benefits are far more spread out and more likely to be outright wasted.

Again, does it make sense to fight a .1% annual property tax hike if a budget shortfall decreases your property values by 10%?

That's what happened in the 1970s and again in the 1990s when the property bubble popped.

Employment Lagged


House Prices Collapsed


And in the 1970s in particular, earnings relative to the rest of the nation stagnated.

[Consensi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'P')reventing the City from becoming a death trap is probably the top priority of a large number of very influential people.

[Tyler_JC]

Granted, it's very difficult to find two equal apartments and there are a lot of assumptions here but bear with me.

This data is from 2006 but New York was the last market to tank so the data is probably still accurate (run up in 2007, drift downward in 2008).

The average apartment was $1,200,000.

The average rent for a 2-bedroom was $3,200.

It would take 32 years for the rents to equal the cost of the apartment.

Does anyone else see a problem here?

If the mortgage is any larger than $400,000, the landlord is losing money. If the mortgage is anywhere even approaching half of the property value, the landlord is losing huge amounts of money.

The only reason the landlords are surviving is that they don't have large mortgages and they get to take advantage of future real estate appreciation. If the city goes to hell and real estate appreciation tails off, the landlords are screwed.

They have a strong incentive to keep the city functioning.

NYC Real Estate Data Book 2007

[AlexdeLarge]

Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts

"88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services. Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110. "

This should help get the city humming again

All New York needs now is another Kennedy! ROTFLMAO

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', '"')88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services. Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110. "

[cube]

I don't know why so many people have this silly idea that government has the power to mitigate EVERY problem under the sun.

We all know that NYC's economy relies very heavily on the "financial industry".
Once people lose ALL their money in hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, etc... society will have a vastly different opinion of the financial industry.
What was once viewed as the golden child will become the bastard child that nobody will touch with a 10 foot pole.
The contraction of the financial industry will naturally take a good chunk of NYC's economy with it.

and there is nothing that can be done.

[AlexdeLarge]

A New York state of mind

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/07/024063.php

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he New York Post reports that congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul would create a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for New York's top earners. Myron Magnet also focuses on New York in an article on "The obsolete New York model." Magnet notes:

It's worth recalling that when the Founding Fathers led the American colonists in revolt against British oppression, they weren't rebelling against torture on the rack or being chained in galleys or having to let aristocrats deflower their daughters. They were rebelling against taxes. To them, having to pay duties they hadn't voted for themselves was a tyrannical taking of property--theft--and, in true Lockean fashion, they concluded that since government exists to protect life, liberty, and property, a regime that does the opposite renders itself illegitimate. What would they make, then, of today's New York City, where 1.2 percent of the taxpayers--40,000 households--pay 50 percent of the income taxes, and half the households pay no income tax at all? If the tax code ensures that those who pay the bulk of the taxes are always a minority of those who vote for the legislature that imposes the taxes, isn't that taxation without representation? Isn't it also the tyranny of the majority that the Founders tried to prevent?

[odegaard]

It is my observation that Liberals enjoy the benefits of government programs the most when somebody else is paying for it.

However Liberals tend to become very conservative when they are asked to pay for what they consume.

The most conservative people I've ever met were actually Liberals.