Why tax the rich?

💸New York state faces a $63 billion deficit over the next 4 years. We need to build a New York for the working class majority, now, and to do it, we have to disrupt our state's secretive budget process & reverse years of economic mismanagement.

On its own, New York has the 10th biggest economy in the world. It's just that the ultra-wealthy and the financial sector are hoarding our economic growth and no one's stopping this gap from growing. It's time for them to face an appropriate tax burden. It's time to tax the rich & put our economy to work for public goods.

Why does this matter to Buffalo?

Governor Andrew Cuomo has used the budget crisis to gain power to make unilateral budget cuts that affect our day-to-day.

• He’s already withheld $8 billion in local aid. Hundreds of teachers have lost their jobs. Hundreds of nonprofit service providers have been forced to shut down just when they’re most needed.
• Medicaid faced $2.2 billion in cuts during the peak of the COVID crisis.
• Buffalo is one of the large cities in New York most affected by rising child poverty.
• The freezing of hiring, new contracts, and pay raises, as well as cutting payments to contracted social service & education programs by 20% have caused devastating losses in our region.
• This affects workers, and people who rely on pregnancy & parenting help programs, services for the developmentally disabled, and mental health/substance use counseling programs the most.
• In 2020, Erie county faced a 77% increase in overdose deaths from the previous year.

How are we going to do it?

New York City DSA's Debt and Finance Workgroup has lead and assembled a plan and coalition to Tax the Rich! The Invest in Our New York Act is a slate of 6 bills that will be pushed by DSA elected officials in the legislature, and by people like us.

Read more about the legislation at Invest in Our New York.

• Tax high incomes
  
  • Bill #1: Create a progressive income tax system
  • Bill #2: Tax investment income the same as wages
• Tax wealth
  
  • Bill #4: Amend Constitution to allow a wealth tax
  • Bill #3: Tax inheritances
• Tax big business and the financial sector
  
  • Bill #5: Small tax on Wall St. financial transactions
  • Bill #6: Offset Trump’s corporate tax cuts

Buffalo, February is our month of action: we need to tell our Assembly and Senate representatives to support the Invest in Our New York Act, and tax the rich to save our state now. Taxing the rich means saving tenants from eviction, having resourced school systems, funding healthcare, improving public transit, and creating jobs.

How can I help?

1. Complete the form to the right to contact our targeted local representatives through email and tell them to Tax the Rich! You can even come back to this page and share the link: bit.ly/taxtherich716

2. Even more important, call our targeted local representatives and tell them to Tax the Rich! bit.ly/taxtherich716calls

3. Now that we've flooded their offices with calls and emails, sign the petition. bit.ly/taxtherichpetitionny

4. And if you want to phonebank and canvas with us here at Buffalo DSA, you can do so all of February here! bit.ly/taxtherich716signup