'Robot Tax' Could Save Workers From Machine Takeover: De Blasio

NEW YORK — A "robot tax" could help protect American workers from the growing threat of automation, according to the latest policy proposal from Mayor Bill de Blasio's longshot presidential campaign.

The Democratic mayor on Thursday proposed a tax against companies that bring in robots to replace humans without giving those workers new jobs. Such firms would have to pay five years' worth of payroll taxes for every person whose job is cut.

De Blasio also proposed closing loopholes that allow corporations to deduct job-killing technology investments from their taxes. A new Federal Automation and Worker Protection Agency would use money from that reform and the new robot tax to create new jobs in health care, early-childhood education and green energy, according to the mayor's proposal.

"My automation plan is the only one that would provide security for current workers and facilitates new, secure good-paying jobs for the next generation of working people," de Blasio said in a statement.

The plan came as de Blasio mulls dropping out of the crowded presidential race if he does not qualify for the Democratic National Committee debate in October. The mayor has struggled to gain traction in the polls and with donors in his quixotic White House bid.

The mayor sought to distinguish his proposal from fellow candidate Andrew Yang's idea for a universal basic income. Yang wants to give every American adult a $12,000-a-year "Freedom Dividend" to protect against job losses from automation.

In an op-ed in WIRED magazine, de Blasio called Yang's idea a "sleight of hand trick" that could trap the middle class in unemployment while allowing the rich to reap the profits from new technologies.

"My plan wouldn’t accept a post-work future," de Blasio wrote. "Instead, it would hasten a work-filled future — one where we use technological advancement to bridge the gap between our current workforce at risk of being made redundant by automation and the resilient union workforce we need."