New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has spoken out and begged wealthy residents to return to ‘The Big Apple’ and help save the city from an economic disaster.
As the coronavirus pandemic struck the city hard earlier this year, thousands of the city’s wealthiest residents have allegedly abandoned their properties and moved to their second homes.
With boroughs such as Brooklyn and Manhattan missing their elite residents, officials fear that the city of over eight million could be facing economic ruin.
Months into the pandemic, it appears that many former NYC residents have established permanent roots at their new locations.
“I literally talk to people all day long who are in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, ‘You gotta come back, when are you coming back?’” Cuomo said during a Monday press conference.point 472 |
“‘We’ll go to dinner; I’ll buy you a drink.point 43 | Come over, I’ll cook.point 63 | ’”point 69 | 1
The governor added:
“They’re not coming back right now. And you know what else they’re thinking? If I stay there, I pay a lower income tax because they don’t pay the New York City surcharge.”
While it is common for the city to clear out during summer months due to vacations, the officials fear that residents, especially the wealthy ones, might not come back at all due to on-going issues the city is facing.
Besides the danger of another outbreak in the metropolis, lawmakers have been calling for increased taxation of the city’s highest earners in an attempt to plug the massive deficit caused by the pandemic.
As Gov. Cuomo expressed, he has been fighting calls for an increase in taxes due to fears that it would cause the elite to stay away from the city for good.
“A single per cent of New York’s population pays half of the state’s taxes and they’re the most mobile people on the globe,” he warned.
Besides these persisting issues, The Big Apple has also been facing a surge in crime whereas robberies have increased by 286% in the Upper East Side alone according to the reports.
Meanwhile, as the NYPD’s budget has been cut by $1 billion, the number of shootings rose drastically whereas arrests have allegedly halved.
According to the reports, there have already been more recorded shootings in the city this year than there were during the entire year of 2019.
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