In Jab at de Blasio, Mayor Says NYC Needs Wealthy

New York’s billionaire mayor said Friday it would be a blessing if the world’s other billionaires all moved to the city because it would increase the tax base.

“They are the ones that pay a lot of the taxes,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “They’re the ones that spend a lot of money in the stores and restaurants and create a big chunk of our economy. And we take tax revenues from those people to help people throughout the entire rest of the spectrum.”

The U.S. Census Bureau figures showed that the mean income of the lowest fifth of New York City households was $8,993 last year, compared with $222,871 for the highest fifth.

Bloomberg added, “If we could get every billionaire around the world to move here it would be a G-dsend that would create a much bigger income gap.”

The leading candidate to replace Bloomberg next year, Democrat Bill de Blasio, said that the census numbers confirmed that “we’re living a Tale of Two Cities, where the rich grow richer while everyone else struggles just to get by.”

This article appeared in print on page 16 of the October 2nd, 2013 edition of Hamodia.