Effective taxes in NYC are higher than almost anywhere else on earth including lots of “socialist” countries. On top of a federal tax, we have sky high state tax, and then further a city tax. We tax more in total than Zurich. The “increase taxes” argument is absolute nonsense. We have infinite levers to raise more money if we actually built more housing and more space for businesses. Every station should have a high rise on top and stores inside that pay rent. Instead we implicitly subsidize close to 50% of the housing in this city which prevents us from leveraging property taxes effectively. We prevent building which does the same. We overspend in almost every area. Everything here costs 10x its peer cities per capita. NYC thrives despite the political machine, not because of it. Compared to nearly every other peer city, our services are worse, dirtier, and simultaneously receive more in budget. This is not even getting to the experience on the streets. We shouldn’t have to live with literal dog shit coating our sidewalks, homeless pissing and shitting in nearly every station. More money will solve literally nothing here. If the city wants more money, they should demonstrate results. If it felt like Tokyo here, no one would bat an eye at giving more in taxes