Happy Tax Day!
23 July 2023
Back in April this year New York Mayor Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the city's first ever pied-a-terre tax, which is an annual fee on luxury apartments worth more than $5 million and whose owners don't live full time there.
He made the announcement in front of 220 Central Park South and singled out the 24,000 square foot penthouse belonging to Ken Griffin, purchased for $238 million in 2019, and now that the city’s legislature has passed the tiered rates bill into law Griffen’s tax nill on his apartment is set to more than double.
Needless to say Mr Griffin, a hedge fund manager and investor reported to be worth over $US 51 Billion , is not happy but Mamdani is doubling down on a tax that will raise about $US500 million to spend on social services.
As time permits over the coming weeks I’m going to look in to some of the proposals to tax the rich in our own country, but for the moment take a look at Mandami’s launch video.
Whatever you think of his proposal, this man knows how to punch through his focused message about fairness. While is style addresses a brasher culture than ours I think some of our politicians on the left could learn a lot by studying the snappy on -target messaging he uses.
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Sadly, Labour aren’t remotely interested in change. I too have emailed many times and a received bland meaningless replies or none at all.
Everyone needs to throw their weight behind the Greens and help counter the negative propaganda that they are subject to.
I won’t be easy, but unless we redistribute the wealth that is currently captured by a tiny minority and start using the government’s borrowing power to invest in our country we can say goodbye to democracy and any semblance of a civil society.
I have emailed Kieran McAnulty twice now to encourage Labour to adopt Mamdani-like energy and ideas. Sadly it’s been crickets so far.