From New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes this astonishing statistic about who pays taxes in the city, in response to calls for tax hikes. The short answer is 40,000 doormats. The longer answer, according to this Wall Street Journal piece is (emphasis is mine):
But late last week Mayor Bloomberg was channelling these columns when he said that raising taxes on high earners could drive them from the city. “One percent of the households that file in this city pay something like 50% of the taxes,” explained the Mayor. “In the city, that’s something like 40,000 people. If a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral. The question is what’s fair. If 1% are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more?”
Doormats.
