General Discussion

Yesterday, New York City’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed raising property taxes in the city by nearly 10 percent — if he can’t persuade New York Governor Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on the wealthy. She’s been reluctant.

In California, meanwhile, Google co-founder Sergei Brin along with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and other billionaires are financing several voter initiatives to limit the creation of a new billionaire tax in California. California Governor Gavin Newsom is also against it.

Why are the governors of the most progressive and richest states in America so unenthusiastic about raising taxes on the wealthiest of the wealthy?

The kindest answer is they’re worried that the rich will abandon their states. (The unkinder is that they’re in the pockets of said rich.)