NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of New York City business leaders has urged officials to refrain from raising taxes as it could jeopardize the state’s recovery from the pandemic and pressure companies to relocate their operations, triggering major economic losses.
Significant corporate and individual tax increases will make it far more difficult to restart New York City’s economic engine, said a letter by the Partnership for New York, which includes 250 of the city’s top business leaders.
President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which provides $1.9 trillion in federal funding, eliminates the need for new state and local New York taxes this year, said the letter, signed by Jaime Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock Inc, among others.
New York’s fiscal year 2022 budget projects a $37 billion revenue loss over four years due to the pandemic. Budget plans have called for raising $1.54 billion and $1.4 billion in the next two fiscal years on taxable income greater than $5 million.
The signers said they were not writing about companies threatening to leave the state, as many people have already resettled their families elsewhere, generally in states with far lower taxes than New York’s.
“This is simply about our people voting with their feet,” the letter said. “The proposed tax increases will make it harder to get them to return.”
(Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Dan Grebler)
