NYC mayor wants to tax the rich to fix the city's subway

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a proposal on Monday for a "millionaires tax" to help fix the city's beleaguered subways.

The plan would tax city residents with annual incomes of more than 500,000 US dollars in order to raise money for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's subway improvements, de Blasio said at a press conference on Monday.

"People do not want to see this madness continue," de Blasio declared, citing people getting work reprimands, picking their kids up late and missing doctor appointments because of subway delays.

The roughly 0.5-percent income tax hike would apply to the roughly one percent of the city's taxpayers would generate about 800 million dollars annually, and it would also fund reduced-price MetroCards for low-income riders.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a rally where he announces a plan to fund MTA improvements on Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, in New York. /AFP Photo

The mayor called for lawmakers in New York State, which runs the MTA, to pass the proposal "so the rest of us can live our lives here in the city."

Joseph J. Lhota, MTA chairman, rolled out a nearly 1-billion-US-dollar emergency subway repair plan in late July, promising to put the brakes on nightmarish delays and derailments of the subways within one year. He suggested the city and the state split the cost evenly.

New York's subway has long been the lifeblood of the city. However, the number of subway delays partly due to the aging infrastructure tripled in the past five years, to 70,000 per month, according to a report released last month. About 5.7 million people take the subway on an average weekday.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

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