For Immediate Release: February 10, 2009
Contact: Dan Levitan
The Working Families Party today released the following statement on the Fair Share Tax Reform Act introduced today in the Senate. It can be attributed to Dan Cantor, WFP Executive Director:
“While Governor Paterson continues to ask everyone except the wealthy to contribute to closing the state’s budget gap, the Fair Share Tax Reform Act introduced by 18 Senators today strikes a bold note for fairness and true shared sacrifice.
The Act would raise $6 billion in desperately needed revenue for New York, helping to offset some of the Governor’s proposed devastating cuts to students, the elderly, and the disabled. Fair Share Tax Reform does so by asking the very richest New Yorkers to pay their fair share in taxes by giving back some of the generous tax cuts they’ve been lucky enough to receive.
As Congress continues to debate the federal stimulus package, hundreds of economists have warned that Gov. Paterson’s proposed cuts could slow economic activity and sink New York deeper into recession.
Their take: raising taxes on those who can most afford to pay is not only the fairest solution, it is the one that will put New York fastest on the road to recovery.
As the devastation to schools, hospitals, libraries, public transportation and hundreds of other essential public programs the Governor has proposed becomes clear, it is no wonder that poll after poll shows the vast majority of New Yorkers support asking the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Today, working families are buoyed by the hope that Albany is beginning to hear their call.”
Details of the Fair Share Tax Reform plan can be found at: http://fairsharereform.com/page/-/assets/Fair_Share_Tax_Reform_CWF.pdf
The letter from hundreds of economists to the Governor can be found at: http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/Letter_EconomistsOnFiscalPolicy_December2008.pdf
###
