Millionaire New Yorkers plead for a tax hike, but aren’t ready to put their money where their mouths are.

Dozens of New York-based millionaires had requested a tax hike on themselves while Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders negotiated the 2016-17 state budget in late March. The budget, which was adopted by New York’s Legislature Friday, ignored the request — rendering it obvious that the letter was insincere attempt at addressing inequality.

In the form of an open letter, the group, including the notable Abigail Disney and Steven Rockefeller, had written that in order to ensure New York’s long-term economic success, the state must invest in both physical infrastructure and human capital by the means of what they call “shared sacrifice,” or, in other words, a tax increase on the “1 percent.”

But these millionaires should acknowledge that a tax hike may only entice the rich to dodge taxes in increasingly clever ways. Proposing such an increase without confronting such rampant fraudulent — and yet often completely legal — practices is futile when the ultra rich should be held accountable with common-sense tax reform first.

The authors of the letter to Cuomo stated that the state cannot afford to ignore its ailing infrastructure and poverty levels, claiming that investments in such areas of society will foster job growth and reduction in extreme income inequality.

They wrote, “As New Yorkers who have contributed to and benefited from the economic vibrancy of our state, we have both the ability and the responsibility to pay our fair share. We can well afford to pay our current taxes, and we can afford to pay even more” referring to such a redistribution of wealth as a “shared sacrifice.”

But is it really a “sacrifice” to pay a fair marginal income tax rate when there are copious dodging strategies and legal loopholes that the wealthy elite may use to evade taxes? This letter may have come as a hopeful change of rhetoric for those who pay attention to wealth inequality, but the letter completely ignores a fundamental driver of it — the exclusive, unwritten tax code of the 1 percent.

Unlike the group of New York millionaires, multi-billionaire and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, gave a surface insight into the deeply rooted issue of flawed tax policy in the United States in his wildly popular 2011 op-ed with The New York Times titled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.”

“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” wrote Buffett.

He described how his federal tax bill was lower than that of his secretary — a statement so shocking even President Barack Obama alluded to it in his 2012 State of the Union speech.

This, Buffett elaborated, was due to the fundamental loophole in the very definition of income. For most of us, income is our salary and if we’re lucky enough, a bonus. But the ultra-wealthy earn their income from “carried interest” or “capital gains,” economic jargon for profit from the sale of properties or investments. This is taxed in a completely different manner at 15 percent, thus essentially creating a private tax system that caters solely to those privileged enough to know it, allowing billionaire executives to pay lower taxes than their secretaries.

Of course, a manifesto could be written on the innumerable clever strategies that the ultra-rich use to avoid taxes, from tax havens and offshore trusts to even renouncing one’s citizenship, all of which deserve attention. However, Warren Buffett proposed the candid solution of not only raising taxes on taxable income excess of $1 million, but also including such capital gains.

We should absolutely encourage and implement a higher tax rate on New York’s top earners.

They owe it to New York for having reaped the various benefits in the state that have contributed to their wealth. These multi-millionaire elite claim to wish to heal New York’s reputation by alleviating poverty and homelessness, but with the greed and corruption of Wall Street being one of the most popular and quintessential New York references, they should look within their own social stratum before offering “sacrifices” to the subordinate classes.

Such pejorative characterizations of New York have been aided by media perpetuation. For example, the 2013 motion picture “Wolf of Wall Street,” based on the true story of 1990s era New York criminal stockbroker Jordan Belfort, was presented as an idolization of selfish greed-seduced millionaires, rather than a cautionary tale of the consequences that such players have on our society.

Belfort engaged in a multitude of tax avoidance behaviors. And when rationalizing his business tactic of preying on naive middle-class investors, his character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, said, “Their money was better off in my pocket — I knew how to spend it better,” perhaps alluding to the collective sentiment of New York’s financial district.

So while upon first glance some may applaud the group of New York millionaires for offering such altruism to their state, when understood in conjunction with fundamental tax policy flaws, a level of skepticism should be raised about the intentions of their letter. The one-percenters have the power to demand, but instead they plead.

These powerful elite have every opportunity to “sacrifice” and unveil the corruptive practices of their own class, but appear to avoid it. One can only assume that the public letter was a call for attention in attempt to ameliorate the derogatory stereotypes of the rich in an election cycle that has exposed tremendous wealth inequality in America.

Such a display should be taken with suspicion. After all, the New York elite are known to be wolves in sheep clothing.

Mia Tomasello is a junior environmental communications major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at atomasel@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @MiaTomasello1.

Published on April 5, 2016 at 1:19 am