Raising local taxes on the rich is about the dumbest policy there is, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday in a direct attack on Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
“If you want to drive out the roughly 1 percent of people who pay 50 percent of the taxes, the 10 percent of the people who pay 70 percent of the taxes, that’s as good a strategy as I know,” said the mayor, responding to de Blasio’s proposal last week to hike the tax rate for those making $500,000 or more to fund universal pre-K classes.
“It’s about as dumb a policy I can think of,” he added.
De Blasio responded that Bloomberg conceded four years ago that not one of his wealthy friends had ever threatened to leave because of taxes.