STUDY OF CITY'S TAX PLAN

By BOB PORT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS NOV 21, 2002

The rich would get richer while the poor would pay more. Mayor Bloomberg's plan to hike property taxes, cut city income taxes and make commuters share the pain adds up to a direct hit on the middle class, a study obtained by the Daily News found. And while the proposal just happens to benefit the wealthy mayor, it doesn't take Bloomberg's billions to come out ahead under his plan. The goal of the mayor's approach is to raise $3 billion from suburban commuters by having them pay city income taxes. But a little-noticed aspect of the plan is that two-thirds of the money - some $2 billion - would not go to the city treasury. Instead, it would effectively fund income tax cuts for New Yorkers. Those cuts would, in turn, offset the higher property taxes he wants, Bloomberg has said. But the new study concluded that's true only for high-income New Yorkers, who would see their overall tax bill shrink. Everybody else would actually pay higher taxes. For example, a report prepared for the City Council - based on numbers from the city's nonpartisan Independent Budget Office - found that the mayor's plan could cost the average renter, who makes $24,000 a year, a net increase of $174. While that renter's income tax would drop $134 - if Bloomberg wins the income tax changes he seeks - higher property taxes passed on by the landlord would drive rent up by about $308 a year. On the plus side Meanwhile, a New York City co-op or condo owner, who makes an average of $180,000 a year, according to the budget office, would pay $1,127 less in city taxes overall. An income tax savings of more than $2,000 would more than cover the co-op dweller's property tax hike of $890. "Our report is called 'Soak the Middle Class,' " said Dan Cantor, executive director of the liberal Working Families Party, which prepared the study. "That's what the mayor is proposing, and that's wrong.

https://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/study-city-tax-plan-article-1.506907

Joe Biden Snaps at NBC’s Savannah Guthrie For Hunter Questions: ‘You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About!’

By Ken MeyerFeb 3rd, 2020, 8:41 am

Former Vice President Joe Biden seemed to get short-tempered with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie when asked about his son, Hunter Biden’s, dealings with Ukraine.

When Guthrie caught up with Biden on Monday, she noted the “irony” that more people know about Hunter’s work with the Burisma gas company now, thanks to President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal and his subsequent impeachment. This led to Biden saying that “no one has found anything wrong with [Hunter’s] dealings with Ukraine, except it sets a bad image.”

“Well, do you agree that it sets a bad image?” Guthrie asked. “Do you think it was wrong for him to take that position knowing it was really because the company wanted access to you.”

“That’s not true,” Biden snapped. “You’re saying things you don’t know what you’re talking about! No one’s said that! Who said that?!”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/joe-biden-snaps-at-nbcs-savannah-guthrie-for-hunter-questions-you-dont-know-what-youre-talking-about/