Top Taxpayers Fleeing NYC In Droves Amid Soaring Crime, Tax Rates, Study Finds

New York City has imploded, with crime soaring and homeless people everywhere. Every day brings a new tale of an attack against an innocent person on the city’s street or subway.

To make matters worse, New York City is losing its top taxpayers. According to a study by the city’s Independent Budget Office, the city has lost 10% of taxpayers who earn more than $750,000 and 6% of those who make between $150,000 and $750,000.

The New York Post said many taxpayers are fleeing New York’s sky-high taxes. “Yet the radicals who increasingly dominate local politics want to slam those who haven’t left even more: Last Monday, a group of advocates and elected officials launched a campaign for a ludicrous $40 billion in new taxes on the rich,” said a recent Post editorial.

And the latest study by the Budget Office only included data up to 2020. There’s no telling how many more have left since the COVID lockdowns that crushed the city.

The exodus is costing New York City billions. The Post reported in June that some 300,000 of the city’s wealthiest residents “earned $21 billion in total income in 2019, according to new data released by the Internal Revenue Service.”

That sum, the paper said, “represents the largest flight of capital from the Big Apple ever recorded.”

The city’s budget is insane: Projected spending is set to soar to $104 billion this fiscal year, a jump of $3 billion. Democratic Mayor Eric Adams in September ordered new cuts but the city will still be struggling.

“Fiscal discipline has been, and continues to be, a hallmark of my administration,” Adams said in a statement.

“The city faces significant economic headwinds that pose real threats to our fiscal stability, including growing pension contributions, expiring labor contracts, and rising health care expenses — and we are taking decisive actions in the administration’s first November Financial Plan to meet those challenges,” he added.

So as chaos rules, the New York City Police Department was forced to cut $69 million from its $5.6 billion budget by leaving open positions vacant. The city’s Department of Education also cut $153 million from its $31 billion budget, the Post reported.

In the runup to the 2022 midterm elections, former New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson said he feels like the city is a dangerous place.

“I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” the ex-governor and lifelong New Yorker told host John Catsimatidis on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable,” the Post reported.

“For the first time in my life, even in the late ’80s and ’90s when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” he said.

The mayor is finally getting serious about the exploding homeless situation. He told The New York Times he wants to get them off the streets — involuntarily if necessary.

“As a city, we have a moral obligation to support our fellow New Yorkers and stop the decades-long practice of turning a blind eye towards those suffering from severe mental illness,” Adams said.

“It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past them,” he added.

But that’ll be difficult as the largest cut proposed in Adams’ budget, $201 million, would come from the Department of Social Services.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.