NY City deficit

In 1975 NY City avoided bankruptcy by defaulting on its debt and having a state-supervised bailout to restructure its finances. Over the years the City has skirted financial problems by increasing taxes. Once again, the city is facing a $12 billion dollar deficit and is proposing new benefits of $4.5 billion for free childcare. The city, like many big cities finds itself in a death spiral. They increase taxes on the rich to pay for benefits for the poor. This causes rich people to leave and the tax burden falls heavier on those who remain and this leads to further tax increases. For many cities the money designated for the poor is distributed not directly to the people but through non-governmental agencies (NGO’s) where funds are siphoned off through various, sometimes, illegal means. NY City with a population of 8.5 million has a budget of $124.7 billion or $14,500 per person. Compare that to the state of Florida whose budget is $117.4 billion with a population of $23.7 million or $5,000 per person. In addition, Florida has a $3.8 billion surplus. While Florida is setting up plans to get rid of non-school property tax on personal residences, New York City is planning on raising property tax and a new 2% tax on those earning more than one million per year scheduled to bring in $4 billion. The new mayor Mamdani is following up on his campaign promise to tax the rich and thus the people are getting what they voted for. In 1951 a newspaper writer, Elmer Peterson, said that “democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse (money) from the public treasury”. Will NY City prove that Mr. Peterson was right?