BIG FLATBUSH 💿 out now

NYC taxes explained for people who don't pay attention: Property tax. Income tax. Sales tax. Unincorporated business tax. Commercial rent tax. Hotel tax. Mortgage recording tax. Mansion tax. Utility tax. Congestion pricing. Twenty-plus taxes. And the mayor wants more. Let me show you what that actually feels like. You're 26. First real job. $85,000. You feel rich. Then you see your paycheck. Federal takes a cut. Fine. Then New York State takes 6%. Then New York City takes another 3.5%. Then there's a "metropolitan commuter mobility tax" you've never heard of. Your $85K is now $54K before rent. You grab coffee. 8.875% sales tax. You take an Uber to the airport. Congestion pricing just added $9. Your landlord raised rent, he's passing along a property tax increase you'll never see on a bill but you're paying every month. You're not rich. You're not even comfortable. You're just surviving. But fine. It's New York. You chose this. Now here's the part nobody talks about. In 2000, NYC's budget was $40 billion for 8 million people. That's about $5,000 per person. Today it's $121 billion for 8.5 million people. $14,244 per person. Population grew 6%. Inflation was 82%. Spending per person nearly tripled. So things must be three times better, right? In 2017, 51% of New Yorkers rated quality of life as good. Today it's 34%. Only 12% think the city spends money wisely. Only 22% feel safe on the subway at night. Felony assaults hit a 24-year high. They spend $31,000 per student on education. Less than half kids can read at grade level. They tripled the spending. Everything got worse. Where'd the money go? Pensions up 115%. Outsourced contracts up $7 billion. A brand new $5 billion asylum seeker expense that didn't exist three years ago. Social services doubled. 302,000 city employees. Debt ballooning. And the new mayor doesn't look at this and say "we need to spend better." He says "we need to tax more." A 2% income tax hike that would push the combined state and city rate to 16.8% -> the highest in the entire country. Tax increases that impact everyone. His supporters chant "tax the rich" at rallies. The top 1% already pay 40% of the city's income tax. And they're leaving anyway. NYC's share of the nation's millionaires dropped from 7% to 4%. They have accountants. They have Florida. You know who can't leave? Your uncle with the restaurant. Your parents in that house. You, watching your paycheck disappear into twenty taxes before you can save a dollar. You need to make $312,000 in New York to live the same lifestyle as someone making $125,000 in Houston. Houston spends $2,850 per person. No state income tax. No city income tax. Population growing. NYC spends five times more. Worse results. NYC is a Netflix subscription that keeps raising the price while the product gets worse. And you can't cancel. $40 billion wasn't enough. $60 billion wasn't enough. $80 billion. $100 billion. Now $121 billion. It will never be enough. Because the problem was never revenue. There is enough money. There has always been enough money. They don't need more of yours. They need to do better with what they already take. I hope you understand what's at stake.