For Immediate Release
6 December, 2011
Contact:
Joe Dinkin, jdinkin@workingfamilies.org
STATEMENT FROM DAN CANTOR, WFP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ON TAX REFORM DEAL:
“Governor Cuomo and Speaker Silver have taken a genuine step toward a fairer tax system and a more robust economy. Today’s agreement, by any measure, is a principled and historic accomplishment as it establishes again the importance of progressive taxation, fairness to the middle-class, working-class and poor, and economic growth.
This agreement means a school nurse no longer pays the same tax rate as a hedge fund manager. Even as Washington seems incapable of action to meaningfully address our stagnant economy, here in New York we still believe that government and civil society and labor and business can collaborate to solve problems.
Fundamentally, we believe that “we all do better when we all do better” — and that means reducing the coarse inequality that characterizes American life today. The fight for the 99%, it is safe to say, will continue. The budget gap that faces us next year requires that we look at closing corporate tax loopholes and resist the austerity mania that has taken hold in Washington and too many other state capitals. In a time when government is often discredited as ineffective or controlled largely by the wealthy, today our elected leaders in Albany proved that that is simply not the case.
Thanks to the Governor and the Speaker, and the hard work of groups such as 99 New York, Strong Economy for All, United NY, Citizen Action, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, the Center for Working Families, the Occupy Movement and many, many others, New York is moving in the right direction.”
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