By skyforbes They don’t really object to the idea that they should share their wealth with others; the tax system is simply cold and adversarial. It makes taxpayers feel bad.
The whole war on millionaires or billionaires makes things worse. It must make any decent rich people, including those who simply lucked out and never did anything tough or illegal, feel paranoid and misunderstood.
But New York is a great city with wonderful services and support programs. Decent people who pay taxes to New York should feel proud, not looted.
An idea for Mamdani: Maje it rewarding and fun to pay city taxes.
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Whenever any people pay city taxes, at least send them an email praising them for doing their civic duty and showing them a picture of a New Yorker helped by a city program. Include a short explanation of how the city budget works, and give taxpayers a voluntary survey asking them for their spending priorities. Use the survey results to create reports about what taxpayers say they want.
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Whenever any people pay enough taxes so that sending them a paper thank you letter would be less than, say, 0.01% of the tax payment, send them a paper letter and an explanation of city spending, along with a chance to participate in the online survey.
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Whenever any people pay the new proposed tax on millionaires, bring them to a party at City Hall or some other interesting city property. Have cool celebrity guests, who’ve been helped by city programs, talk about how they were helped. Have a couple of children who were helped by city programs talk about how they were helped. Bring in a choir of city workers to lead a “This Land Is Your Land” sing-along. Help the millionaire taxpayers understand what great things their tax payments do. Make them want to increase what they send to wonderful city programs, instead of feeling as if they’re being forced to pump cash into a mysterious, useless black hole.