New York Sees Push to Tax Stock Trades With Revenue in Free Fall

  • Stock transfer tax would raise $13 billion annually for state
  • Ascendant progressive lawmakers are more amenable to tax

   

Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg
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Democrats in New York, the world’s financial capital, may finally have the right moment to resurrect the state tax on stock trades.

One-fifth of the state’s revenue is disappearing, leaving a projected four-year deficit of $61 billion. Progressive Democrats are on the ascent in the state legislature. Stock trading has surged. And taxing it would raise $13 billion a year to avert painful cuts to government services during a pandemic that’s exaggerating economic and racial inequality.