Hey buds, wanted to try Reddit as a source for candid feedback and opinion. I work in public policy, bridging the gap between politicians' lofty ideas and actual viable change.
After much study and number crunching to see how various progressive policies (such as city-wide universal childcare) could actually be implemented, one thing has become clear which may seem obvious to most folks. There is an ongoing demographic shift specific to this county. A continuing large influx of low-income NY/NJ residents who cost more and contribute less taxes. This makes progressive reforms increasingly nonviable, so I've been tasked with addressing this issue as a first step towards positive change. I wanted to get your feedback on ways to stop this influx or at least mitigate it's negative effects without hurting current residents.
To put it as simply as possible: for progressive reforms to be viable in this county, we need to stop hemorrhaging tax dollars, of which new low-income residents are a major cost and I believe an easy fix. So here we go:
What do you think about a "new resident" property and/or vehicle tax for anyone who previously resided in NY/NJ? A targeted income tax presents other problems but is potentially an option too.
Other areas explored including reducing unemployment benefits, making public school registration more difficult and expensive, reducing access to taxpayer funded housing, tightening occupancy rules, selectively enforcing noise restrictions, and more. The bottom line is in order to truly improve this city for everyone who currently lives here we would need to fix our tax base first, and an effective way to do that would be to discourage low income NY/NJers from moving here.
Please let me know your thoughts!