On the radio tonight, I heard New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg express a common sentiment in politics. He was commenting on the new state budget proposal and while he was delighted with all of the state money the city would be getting for education, he was not happy about "all of the money they would be taking from us and using upstate."

I've heard this sort of thing before from mayors, from governors and from members of Congress who complain about how much money the people they represent pay in taxes that gets sent somewhere else in the state or the nation. Here's the thing whiners - it's called progressive taxation. Which you happen to love when you're doing it to us. The wealthier the city, district or state the more they are going to pay in taxes.

When Mayor Mike was advancing a plan for a property tax refund, he was not going to give a refund to anyone who owned property. The property tax refund you got, if you got one, was based on your income. The larger your income, the smaller your property tax refund. Very progressive.

I'm sure the members of the city council who represent Uptown were busily griping about how much of their taxes were being sent downtown.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 02:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment