Mayor Bloomberg: 'We love the rich people'; Doesn't want to over-tax NewYork's wealthy

BY Adam Lisberg
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Friday, March 6th 2009, 12:27 PM

Smith for News: Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg stuck up for the upper crust Friday, saying proposed taxes on New York's highest earners would penalize the people who drive the city's economy.

"You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people," he said on his WOR-AM radio show.

"People say, 'Oh, well, you know, if the income were redistributed throughout the system more fairly,' " Bloomberg continued.
"I don't know what fair means. You can argue that if you make more money, you deserve more money."

Rich people generate jobs and taxes with the expensive things they buy and the fancy restaurants where they eat, Bloomberg said - but they aren't making much money as the stock market collapses, and raising taxes on them will just drive them away.

Bloomberg's own proposed budget for next year doesn't touch income taxes. It hikes the sales tax by a quarter-percent, taking an estimated $894 million from New Yorkers' pockets.

"A very small percentage of people do account for a big part of our income," he said. "The first rule of taxation is ... you can't tax too much those that can move."

Bloomberg is New York's wealthiest man, worth an estimated $20 billion, and is on a first name basis with billionaires around the world.

The mayor spoke a day after thousands converged on City Hall to call for tax hikes on families earning $250,000 or more in order to stop painful budget cuts.

He had previously taken a more measured stance against tax-the-rich plans, like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's proposal to raise taxes on families earning $500,000 or more.

"I hear the protesters, you know," Bloomberg said. "I think that deep down inside, I assume, they understand that we live in a different world."