Why Wealthy New Yorkers Won't Move to Iowa

by: Justin Krebs

Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 13:12

As this video shows, there's some confusion already over who is paying what:

All New Yorkers earning over $20k, pay the same rate. Fair Share Tax Reformers in NY are calling on the Governor to follow the President's lead and ask those earning $250,000 to pay a higher rate.

One counter argument:  "If we raise taxes on the rich, they'll move away."

Beside the fact that if you like NYC, you sort of can't imagine living anywhere else, you also run into this problem, as noted on the Fair Share Blog: Iowa's tax rates are higher than New York.  And for folks earning more than $500,000, so are New Jersey's.

The good news: the city's wealthiest resident isn't going anywhere -- in fact, he changed the law to ensure that he could stay in office 4 more years...and giving us 4 more years to raise his taxes.