Wealth taxes make cities fragile

When cities depend heavily on high‑income and business taxes, their budgets become tied to volatile capital and labor markets; politically attractive tax hikes on the wealthy can therefore increase short‑term revenue but worsen fiscal resilience in a downturn. Without harder spending discipline or more stable revenue sources, services and staffing become harder to protect when the economy sours. — This reframes municipal tax policy as not just a distributional choice but a structural risk to city governance and service continuity during recessions.