Cuomo calls on wealthy to return to New York City: ‘You got to come back!’

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is calling on the wealthy to return to New York City from their weekend homes in the surrounding suburbs, fearing they may choose to stay and file taxes there. 

“I literally talk to people all day long who are now in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, ‘You got to come back, when are you coming back?’” Cuomo said at a press conference Monday. 

“‘We’ll go to dinner, I’ll buy you a drink, come over, I’ll cook,’” Cuomo added in jest. 

His comments come as state legislators and some New York lawmakers in Washington have called for him to adopt a billionaire’s tax, which he has vehemently rejected.

According to Cuomo, the richest 1 percent of the population already pays 50 percent of the taxes in the city. Progressive lawmakers have argued they still pay a much lower percentage of their earnings than lower-income residents of the city. 

Cuomo argues that a wealth tax would deter the wealthy from coming back to New York City and paying their taxes there. 

“They’re not coming back right now. And you know what else they’re thinking? ‘If I stay there, I pay a lower income tax,’ because they don’t pay the New York City surcharge,” Cuomo said on Monday. “That would be a bad place if we had to go there.”

Cuomo also said that the state’s budget deficits need help from the federal level, telling the New York congressional delegation to not pass a stimulus bill unless it provides enough funding for the state. 

“I’m not going to let Washington off the hook,” Cuomo said. “They have to deliver. … Don’t pass a piece of legislation that doesn’t restore New York’s funds.”