Populist rabble rousing.
The elephant in the room as far as the alleged need for high taxes is the fact that recurring expenditure has been rising faster than recurring revenue for a good many years now. A look at the government's accounts shows that the overwhelming amount of the increase is due to personal costs (including pensions).
Separately, I have been told repeatedly that Hong Kong has four key attributes as a place to do business (i) rule of law (ii) gateway to China (iii) efficient capital markets and (iv) the low tax rate. The first is viewed by some as being under threat, the second is a wasting asset as China develops its own hard and soft infrastructure which leaves (iii) and (iv) to underpin Hong Kong's economy.
As a side note, I'm sure Keynes and students of the Great Depression would have no difficulty in explaining why raising taxes during a recession is a really dumb idea.
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/s...&productType=8
Property is already hugely taxed:
1. land premium
2. regular stamp duty
3. double stamp duty for second buyers etc
4. special stamp duty for sales within a short period of time
5. rates
6. government rent
7. property tax on rental income
All of these contribute to the high cost of housing in Hong Kong. Making housing more affordable has been an on going policy and practice failure (at least since Tung Chee-hwa's badly timed pledge of a zillion new flats). Adding to the cost of buying and owning property has always pushed up the cost of the end product making housing less affordable not just in Hong Kong but everywhere else. As I have said many times on this forum, the solution to Hong Kong's housing woes is to increase supply.