[zjaffee]

NY should pay for single payer in part by raising real estate taxes, it's the only clear way the state has to avoid capital flight in the way you're describing here.

This said, a big thing NY benefits from is that a lot of people work in NY state temporarily as consultants in addition to the bridge and tunnel crowd that come in from NJ and CT, this gives them a much larger tax base than the population living there brings in on its own.

[hersko]

I live in NY and pay >$18k a year in property tax for a small house. Real estate taxes are high enough.

[kevin_thibedeau]

They are offensively low for multi-million dollar buildings in NYC. Cut some slack for owner occupiers who had the assessed value skyrocket on them. Tax everybody else fairly.

[nradov]

"Fair" is highly subjective and no one can agree on what that means. Most of us think the fair option is to raise other people's taxes.

[kevin_thibedeau]

If a property sells for $10M and it's assessed at $100K that's objectively unfair. NYC's deficit spending means that their intentional under taxation of property is subsidized by the rest of the state.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

"most of us" don't understand the basic concept of marginal tax rates, and "most of us" don't understand the idea of marginal utility. "most of us" have in some form or another been doused in a firehose of "the only good tax rate is a lower tax rate" propaganda generated over (at least) the last 40 years.

For a long time, the USA (like many other post-industrial revolution countries) has accepted that "fair" means using progressive taxation to try to create roughly equal impact given the marginal utility of higher levels of income. It's not incredibly scientific, but it isn't really incredibly subjective either.

Conservatives and their cousins at some level more or less reject the concept that there is any fair level of taxation at all, and if there is, they lean toward equal numerical taxes for every dollar earned (or taxed), thus rejecting marginal utility theory entirely.

There are at least a couple of high-net-worth-admission lobbying groups that have asked Congress to raise rates on people like themselves (which inevitably will impact other people like themselves). And speaking for myself, I believe that I should pay more in taxes.

[nradov]

Most of us understand the concept of marginal tax rates just fine. We're arguing about the optimal shape of the curve. Everyone (with a few exceptions) seems to prefer that the curve should trend up sharply just past their own income level.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

At least half, and I would say as a hand-waving number, maybe as much as 75% of the comments I see in any online comment thread to any news-y-ish thing demonstrate a complete failure to understand marginal tax rates.

Closer to home: my kids don't understand it. My wife doesn't understand it. Most of my in-laws don't understand it.

[tekknik]

> the only good tax rate is a lower tax rate" propaganda generated over (at least) the last 40 years.

You lost me here. I guess it’s bad to want to keep my money I’ve worked so hard to earn. Must be that propaganda. Or perhaps the socialism propaganda just isn’t working?

[bradleyjg]

A part of the reason is idiotic programs like 421a

[imapeopleperson]

How would raising taxes on real estate not cause capital flight?

[gruez]

You can't move a house (or the land it sits on) out of state.

[q1w2]

I can't tell if you're being serious - but when people start moving out because of excessive taxation, prices drop and tax revenues go down with them (because real estate taxes are based on home values).

Capital flight lowers real estate tax revenues. This should be obvious, so maybe your comment was a joke?

[gen220]

FWIW, in NY generally the tax assessed value of properties is far below the market price (20-30%, sometimes more).

NY could afford for the "market price" to fall quite considerably before it would significantly affect tax revenues.

[namlem]

Land value tax. Don't tax the buildings, just the land.