“Today, the state Assembly Democrats issued an income tax plan predicated on the absurd contention that the state’s most successful entrepreneurs, investors and business executives will turn over 54 cents of every dollar of their top earnings to the government for the privilege of living and working in New York State. They assume that New York can raise taxes on the highest earners by 17 percent and collect billions of new revenues. It is far more likely that such a move will cost the state billions of lost tax dollars and many thousands of lost jobs. On most of their income, these taxpayers would pay only 40 cents of every dollar to the government if they move to Florida or Texas; 45 cents in London or Paris; less than 25 cents in Hong Kong or Singapore. Their proposed tax increase would make New York City the highest taxed location in the country. The last time the state imposed rates this high was in the 1970’s – a decade in which the city lost half its Fortune 500 companies, about a million residents, and nearly went bankrupt. Their proposal should be dead on arrival.”