New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday targeted the city’s richest residents and called for taxes that would “redistribute” wealth and restore efforts to the coronavirus pandemic.
De Blasio set out his revival plans during his last State of the City speech. The mayor argued that higher taxes on the rich would generate income to revamp the local economy due to the pandemic.
“We are constantly going to work for a fairer economy, and that means taxing the rich and redistributing the wealth of this city to those who do the work,” de Blasio said in the address. “Even during the pandemic, there was a boom in the stock market. We saw 120 billionaires in New York grow their net worth by $ 77 billion.”
De Blasio called for prosperity distribution, even though he received criticism from local business leaders about dealing with the pandemic. Advocates for the restaurant industry in New York and local small businesses argued that Democratic leaders imposed strict lock-in measures and did not provide adequate support, which contributed to hundreds of closures.
Progressive legislators in New York, including de Blasio and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have repeatedly called for increased taxes on the rich as a way to help struggling Americans.
Earlier this month, New York government Andrew Cuomo warned the state could raise taxes to address a historic budget knot without additional federal aid. An estimated 70,000 netizens left New York City from the start of the pandemic in March to December last year, which cost an estimated $ 34 billion in lost revenue, according to a study by analysis firm Unacast.
De Blasio said his government would ‘fight for higher taxes for the rich and a tax on a new billionaire’, adding that initiatives ‘will provide the means to build a recovery for all of us’.
Aside from his call for higher taxes on the rich, de Blasio outlined the introduction of a recovery tax credit for small businesses, as well as a lending program for entrepreneurs trying to recover from the pandemic.
He cites the success of his ‘Open Restaurants’ dining program, which he says allows the city to ‘bring those restaurants back and save 100,000 jobs’. Indoor dining is currently banned in New York City, though it will start again soon.
The mayor spoke at length about his plans to combat climate change, arguing that the city of New York should “give a head start to end fossil fuel use.” De Blasio has promised to spend $ 50 billion on city pension resources over the next 15 years for renewable energy investments, while still getting money for fossil fuel businesses.
The city of New York will add two-way bike lanes to the Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges, add ‘bike boulevard’ in the five districts and open more streets for pedestrians and cyclists.
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“These are the kind of changes that allow us to move out of the era of fossil fuels and the era of the automobile and enter a green future as part of our commitment to the New York City Green New Deal,” de Blasio said. said.
De Blasio said New York aims to vaccinate five million city residents by June and reopen schools in September. In addition, City Hall plans to use federal incentive funds to set up a ‘City Cleanup Corps’, which de Blasio compared to a program of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ program during the Great Depression.
De Blasio will leave the mayor’s office at the end of 2021 due to deadlines.