Koch Sides With Quinn On Increasing Taxes For The Wealthy

Former Mayor Ed Koch and I probably don't agree on many issues but we both Speaker Quinn's bid to raise city income tax on the wealthiest of our inhabitants. I also don't agree with Quinn very often, but that's besides the point. What we have now is a financial crisis that hasn't been seen in a long time and we need to do something concrete about it. Creating a tiered system is definitely a part of a comprehensive plan.

From The Daily Politics:

Koch was on hand at City Hall yesterday for Council Speaker Christine Quinn's State of the City address, during which she proposed a three-tiered plan that would increase taxes on the city's wealthier residents, starting with those who earn $297,000.

"I always believed that rich people should pay more, and I'm one of them," Koch told the DN's Frank Lombardi after Quinn's speech.

He disagreed with Bloomberg's claim that rich people would move out of the city if made to pay higher taxes, saying:

"Not me! And I believe the city is so extraordinary and the dollars that you're talking about by comparison is so miniscule that it would not have such an effect.

Koch sees through that tired argument that rich people would move out of the city. Plenty of locales have tiered systems and the wealthy don't leave those communities simply for having to pay a higher tax rate. There is more to the question of desirability of living in cities than just their tax rates. New York has a lot to offer and as a result, it takes a lot to keep it going. Especially in hard times, we need to pull together and not leave the poor out in the cold, or play on the fears of people by threatening to leave altogether.