The New York Times today points to the increasingly likelihood that New York will raise taxes on the wealthy to help balance the budget. That’s good news for anyone who thinks school children, the elderly, and the disabled shouldn’t have to bear the burden of the state’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit alone:
Warning to rich New Yorkers: The tax man might be digging deeper into your pockets in the years ahead.
There is a growing sense in the capital that legislators are likely to turn to an income tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help close the state’s $15 billion deficit, now that Democrats control the Senate, the Assembly and the governor’s office.
The Assembly, where Democrats have an overwhelming majority, has long supported increasing taxes on the wealthy, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, reiterated this month that there continued to be strong backing for the measure among his colleagues.
Governor Paterson is starting to see it too, joining his colleagues in the legislature who have been leaders in the fight for a fair budget for months:
Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, did not propose any income tax increases in his budget proposal, but acknowledged in last month that “taxing the wealthy is probably going to be part of the solution if the deficit gets any worse, and all indications are that it probably will.”
That could leave the matter in the hands of the Senate, where Democrats won a narrow majority in November. Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, said that he planned to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would increase taxes on the rich, and that he expected his colleagues to have an active debate about the issue.
“There are a lot of us who feel that for the last 30 years we’ve been shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to middle-class families,” Mr. Schneiderman said on Tuesday. “Our conference is operating through consultation and discussion, and I expect we’ll be talking about restoring some additional tax brackets for upper-income New Yorkers as well as a lot of other options.”
For our part, we won’t give up the fight until Albany asks for real shared sacrifice from everyone, including those who can most afford to pay a little more in taxes:
The Working Families Party, a labor-backed party that has considerable clout in Albany, has also been outspoken in its support for the tax.
“We are going to be running a full-throated campaign to make the case that it would be wiser to tax the very wealthiest New Yorkers rather than cut spending on the elderly, children and the disabled,” said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party.
“That will mean knocking on doors, organizing local opinion makers, meeting with people affected by the cuts, doing town hall meetings and meeting with legislators.”
