KINGSTON – A town hall, at the Senate Garage in Kingston’s historic district, was hosted Wednesday in opposition to the current political climate that favors wealthy Americans.
The ‘Fight ICE, Stop Billionaires’ town hall was conducted by Hudson Valley-based For the Many, and Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha (D-Esopus) was the featured speaker.
Shrestha lamented the economic burden on ordinary New Yorkers, such as extra health care costs, and how the Trump administration has made the problems worse with massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
“The Trump administration passed and enacted a spending bill that make significant cuts on health care,” she said. “You will also see that most of these tax cuts were made in order to extend tax cuts that are worth about $4.5 trillion that obviously very much benefits the most wealthy taxpayers.”
Shrestha proposes taxing the capital gains for wealthy taxpayers, which is where they earn a lot of their income.
The lawmaker also pointed out how tax rates penalize ordinary income earners, those making far less than $100,000-a-year, with the same rate as someone making a $1 million annually.
“The person who has more money is not paying a fair share of taxes,” she said. ‘But it is more apparent when you go to the higher brackets. Somebody who is making $20 million (annually) is paying the same rate as somebody making $5 million. In this scenario, we feel bad for the person making $5 million because the person making $20 million is paying the same rate.”
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