The big cities don’t have money to upgrade Infrastructure or support affordable housing. Why? We tax existing poorer homeowners who supplement the truly wealthy corporations and developers. I for one resent paying almost $14,000 annually in real estate taxes when those in NYC owning $25+ Million properties are exempt from real estate taxes.
- Why should the Middle Class support the wealthy and be denied services and jobs for lack of revenue?
- Another idea, whose time has come, is taxation of the developers benefiting from “We the People’s “ largess. Since the Middle Class pays taxes, we support all the Infrastructure brought to the Land lords door. “We the People “make it possible for them to charge the big bucks on rentals or apartment purchases. What do we get in exchange? Traffic congestion, subway delays, gas explosions, poor use of energy resources, etc.
During the last 20 yrs according to the Economist wages have doubled and the cost of housing has gone up almost 4 times as much. The Middle Class is being squeezed. Isn’t time to share the burden, since we don’t participate in the developers wealth?
- Place a land use tax on all developers and let them pay for our Cities Infrastructure & decent paying jobs. Some have proposed a 5-10% tax on gross revenue. Not too onerous. This concept is up for debate among Economists, not Legislators. If we want taxation that works for “We the People”, elect Legislators who will work for the people and help us achieve a decent living wage.
When “we the people” pay Corporations to move to our Communities , it is a lose lose for people, unless and until the Corporations are taxed for the land they use. The same analogy applies to developers, I can’t stress this point enough, developers get the benefit of a new transportation hub and Infrastructure , while the rest of the city suffers with higher taxes, rents and poor maintenance of a our schools and necessary infrastructure. As the Corporations become richer , our wages stagnate and the once thriving Middle Class continues to shrink. Don’t you want a better life for yourself, your kids and your grandchildren? Don’t you want that life now?
We recognize the problem. We’ve created our” State of Inequality” by eliminating taxation of Corporations and the wealthy. We can become a more equal progressive hard working society by increasing our tax base. Sounds right to me. What about you ?