Wall Street fairly shuddered two years ago when Mayor John Lindsay urged a 50% increase in New York's stock-transfer tax. Brokers protested that the tax was already unfair to out-of-state investors, who account for 70% of the New York Stock Exchange's $130 billion annual business. Warning that any increase would be "misguided, shortsighted and self-defeating," the Big Board dropped plans to build a new $80 million headquarters in Manhattan, threatened to move lock, stock and trading booths out of the state.
Though Lindsay's proposed increase was later trimmed to 25% in the...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
