In 1978, the top 0.1 percent owned about 7% of the nation’s wealth. In 2019, the latest year of data available, they owned nearly 20%. The richest 1% now hold more wealth than the entire middle class in America. And in just the first year of the pandemic, the world’s 2,365 billionaires increased their worth by $4 trillion, or by 54%.
This is wrong.
The rich are getting richer and they’re doing it by breaking the law, as billionaires and corporations cheat on their taxes and exploit workers, with the recent Panama Papers merely showing the tip of the iceberg.
Tom’s tax plan for economic fairness for working families is simple — TAX THE RICH.
Tom’s Agenda:
- Pass an ultra-millionaire wealth tax of at least 2% for those with more than $50 million in assets.
- Reverse the disastrous 2017 Trump-Ron Johnson tax cuts for the rich and corporations that only incentivized jobs to go offshore through shareholder dividends, stock buybacks, or CEO bonuses.
- Eliminate the carried interest loophole that lets Wall Street barons pay lower tax rates than regular workers.
- Make sure corporations like Amazon and Nike pay their fair share by closing tax loopholes. Too often corporations make billions without paying a nickel in taxes. That’s wrong.
Tom’s Record:
- As county executive, Tom wrote and enacted balanced budgets that emphasized fairness and delivered a declining tax rate (while maintaining a AAA bond rating)
- Tom vetoed a regressive county sales tax.
- As Assembly Majority Leader, Tom created a top income tax bracket to make sure the rich paid their fair share in order to fund crucial state services like K-12 education that were imperiled by the Great Recession (2009-11).
More Information:
- Watch Tom’s video on tax fairness (using a traditional Thanksgiving dinner) here.