NYC Mayor Wants To Tax The Wealthy To Fund Subway Repairs

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio might have a plan to get some of the money needed to fix the city's failing subway system. 

The New York Times reports de Blasio wants to increase taxes for the wealthiest New York City residents — roughly 32,000 people. 

This so-called "millionaires tax" would generate as much as $800 million each year by raising the city's highest income tax rate from 3.9 percent to 4.4 percent. 

The Times reports that would affect married couples who make more than $1 million a year and individuals earning more than $500,000 a year. 

More than half of the funds generated from the tax would go toward repairing the city's subway system. The rest would be put toward half-price Metro cards for poor New Yorkers — a program similar to one implemented in Seattle in 2015.

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Subway power outages, long delays and even a derailed subway car led New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency for the system back in June. "The current state of decline is wholly unacceptable," Cuomo said. 

In response, the state's transit authority came up with an $8.8 billion plan to stabilize and then overhaul the subway. It's unclear if this new proposed tax would help fund the previously announced renovations.

More than 5.6 million people ride New York City's subway on an average weekday.