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(TikTok screencap)
Giving the freedom to billionaires to not pay taxes because they donate to charity is so very wrong.
I don't have the power to decide where my taxes go. They shouldn't either.
"Who knew non-profit would be so profitable?!"
Sam Altman knew.
I knew it was Taylor Swift's fault the whole time. :)
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I love Lemmy fr
What you have to understand is that Taylor Swift paid a very tiny portion of her net worth in taxes. And she probably spends more flying around on her jet then she does in paying taxes.
Rich people don't pay taxes as a sport not to save money. They just want to be part of that club.
THANK YOU 👏👏
He balanced the budget by doing some things right! But an additional 4bn came from the Governor that is trying to get reelected and is sucking up. Don't forget that.
NYC contributes a lot more than that to the state. I don't mean that in a "it's not fair!" way but NYC residents just receive fewer benefits for each tax dollars they put in and that will continue to be the case.
Subsidizing rural communities a good thing as long as it's not at the expense of the people keeping the state running. If the infrastructure crumbles, there are no tax dollars to fund anything
Me made 500 million from taxing more. He made up the other 11.5 billion from State subsides and stopping pension contributions.
How much of that 4bn originally came from the city anyway?
Oof that's a difficult question. Do those that generate the revenue deserve more of said revenue or is there some redistribution?
Doesn't matter to me right now because I think he is doing a great job
I think if there's a surplus it should be redistributed, but the city should get what it needs to balance it's budget before anything goes to the state/fed. This spending could be audited by the state to ensure that the money is not going to waste/corruption. Those who are producing the revenue should be able to benefit from it before anything goes to others.
I disagree with that. M understanding of a society is that you are helping on another. That should create an equal level of wealth, comfort, whatever you want to call it. So much for the theory.
Budgets are numbers set by what do I have and what do I want. And the want part is dynamic just as much as the have part. And as soon as there is some have everybody wants something. Why wouldn't you just keep it all?
Another point is that a city can't exist on its own. It needs food, water, logistics and people that come in to work. It is a giant standing on another kind of giants shoulders. It is not only morally right to share the revenue but necessary to keep the system running.
Speaking of morals: of course we need to help the others that are less fortunate.
Like i understand this, but also (as an NYC resident) its extremely demoralizing to spend so much money on taxes and not see those taxes reflected back in the city (crumbling infra, disgusting streets, a subway system that constantly smells like hot piss, etc) and is exactly why people end up leaving NYC/high tax areas because they don't feel like their money is going to good use.
The cost of external logistics like water, waste management, highways, etc should be factored into the budget
I have no problem helping people, but I have a problem with a massive chunk of my tax dollars going to red towns who are constantly fighting to pay the least (while getting bankrolled by the rest of us) while I live in a city where things are literally falling apart.
And that's fine for now, we will see what happens moving forward
Absolutely! I think he is doing great and want them to succeed
1000% The more he succeeds and shows that these principles progressives have pushed for years are effective the more we can hopefully swing the rest of the nation and get votes for a better country for all of us.
Mamdani made Taylor Swift pay taxes
False: there's no mention of Taylor Swift in particular. This may be an attempt to create a false conflict between the two.
She probably has second homes there. Which were taxed more.
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Every billionaire is complicit, including your favorite billionaire: The pop star, the superstar athlete, the philanthropist, or the guru who cosplays as middle class. They're all motherfuckers.
This is why I can't stand to watch professional sports anymore, just some millionaire getting payed by his billionaire owner to play a game so you stay distracted by your bread and circuses.
Whatever you do, never mention this world-view at work, if you value your career.
I just hoot and holler along.
Mamdani making T. Swizzle pay NYC taxes was the reason he balanced the budget? I thought it's because he negotiated with NY state for aid (which, fair game; NYC pays more in taxes than it gets back), delayed the city pension, and is finalizing a pied-à-terre tax.
What meaningful raise on Taylor Swift's taxes has Zohran Mamdani imposed? Did she not pay taxes before? What's the source here?
The real world is allowed to be complicated and messy, and ironically, reducing it to "hurr durr he taxed Taylor Swift" is doing a disservice to what Mamdani actually managed to work out to balance the budget – which is imperfect, but he inherited a $12 billion deficit from a conman. It's good for what it is.
Taylor Swift owns multiple secondary properties in New York City.
She has amassed a massive real estate footprint on a single block in Tribeca, worth an estimated $50+ million. Her holdings include:
Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani finalized a deal to implement a pied-à-terre tax surcharge on luxury secondary residences in NYC.
The tax starts as a 4% surcharge on the property's value and then there is an annual charge that scales up progressively based on the assessed value.
Rhode Island passed a similar luxury second-home tax targeting non-resident estates over $1 million, a piece of legislation that the press nicknamed the "Taylor Swift Tax" due to its impact on her $17 million Watch Hill mansion.
To say that this alone is balancing the budget is an oversimplification (what are hot takes if not reductive) but the tax will have a meaningful impact because she owns a lot of property in NYC.
The tax in its entirety is supposed to bring around 500 million. The NYC budget was 12 billion in the red.
It's a great start, but suggesting that they managed to balance out the budget thanks to something that handled 1/24th of that deficit is just silly.
Enough partial solutions will sum up to a whole. If we treat them all as insignificant, then none will be enacted and no progress will be made.
Sure, it is reductive but I also get what the image is referring to and don't think we have to be too literal about it. It's saying the spirit of that tax (ie. taxing the ultra wealthy) is how Mamdani is going about balancing the budget - while invoking a very recognizable billionaire to drive the point home. I read it more as using Taylor Swift as an example rather than insinuating her taxes, or the secondary estate tax in general, would be enough to balance the budget on their own.
Many hot takes are like this. They're meant to capture your attention, and while they may not be literally true on their own, the good ones have a reasonable conceptual foundation.
Why are all the memes now text on top of pictures of randos
Im pretty sure they are screengrabs from tiktoks. Never really used it myself but thats the default font afaik
Now watch me TikTok it further by pasting half of my blurred, blotchy head in the image so that I can point repeatedly in the general direction of the video I want you to see. Maybe even point at my ear once or twice to say, "Lishhun too, bruh.."
I hate that platform so much. I swear most people are operating on half-spent watch batteries nowadays and have just come to accept this crap as passable content.
Stundents and professionals are outsourcing their critical thinking to ai and it is having a measurable negative impact on their productivity and understanding. Internet brainrot has been around since the first websites. I doubt tiktok is much worse for the kids than aim rooms, myspace, instagram etc. Social media is toxic but i think the brain drain is more likely because our education system in the us is focused on funding over educations and the thechnocrats are pushing ai for everything wikipedia and giving a shit could solve
The good thing is that she still can donate to food pantries too!
taylor parties with magats i woulndt be so sure, and shes conservative herself.
I thought he didn’t adjust taxes? I thought pension funds were used.
I’m not 100% up to date though so i may just be wrong.
He suspended pensions contributions, took just over $8bn in state aid funding and exemptions from state regulations, and delayed initiatives such as classroom size reduction. The city also over-estimated the number of employees it would have this year so that was an extra special saving of $1.3bn when expected outgoings were reconciled with the actual number. The actual tax increases he has implemented would “only” be worth $500m.
Basically it was a one-time thing, and the budget won’t be balanced next year, and the tax increases are nowhere near enough. But it got good press for a couple of days which I suspect was the point.
It's both. He convinced Kathy Hochul to pass a tax on second properties (pied-à-terre tax), but he also suspended pension contributions for 5 years.
It's always weird cuz I donate to Charities and I also already pay taxes. How come they can't do both?
Did he figure out a way to tax the billionaires that primarily own assets?
Fuck yeah he did.
And, shockingly, they're not leaving NYC en masse.