The new study by New York City’s Independent Budget Office shows a 10% plunge in taxpayers who made over $750,000, and 6% of those with incomes between $150,000 and $750,000.
These now-former New Yorkers who fled the city because of high taxes and post pandemic progressive policies will no longer pay hefty taxes to the city or state, leaving significantly less revenue to fund progressives’ pet projects.
“Everybody always worries about whether billionaires and the wealthy are going to get up and leave from New York,” huffed Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos. “I’m sick of seeing working-class New Yorkers have to leave.”
According to the study, the top 1% of taxpayers accounted for 45% of the city’s total income-tax liability in 2020; they’re the ones most sensitive to high taxes (the bottom 50% only accounted for less than 4%).
Other factors (like the weather and the lockdown) also pushed wealthy folks to split: One study showed Manhattanites who moved to sunny Palm Beach County, Fla., earned an average $728,351 each.
The loss of more tax revenue from top earners will only add to the massive budget gaps both the city and state face in coming years, which already threaten cuts to progressives’ beloved programs — and even to core services.
New York needs to stop driving away its tax base before there’s nothing left to bleed.