this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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We're talking local here, not national.
Even if they started taxing the rich, there wouldn't be many to tax in the area.
https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/cumberland-md-median-household-income/#income-by-quintile
$300,000 is upper middle class, just barely enough to maybe call "rich". Even so, it's likely the only reason they live there is low taxes. We're not talking national taxes here, this is local, and they can be absolutely sure if they locally tax those wealthier people any more than they are, they'll move away.
They absolutely should do that, and give a firm middle finger to the back of the wealthy assholes as they move to their new mansion in whatever backwater they're moving to next, but it doesn't solve the inherent problem: the tax base is too small and too poor.
This is just a mountain town that has died slowly after the death of industry there post World War II, and frankly there is no good way to save it because there's no way to convince anybody to take their industries up there. The state can subsidize it but it's not going to grow.
What they're doing here is trying to use the new changes in remote work to potentially trigger a revitalization and expand the tax base. Even then, they're only giving it to 10 individuals, not anybody that moves there as the meme is implying. It may work, but I have my doubts.