[NYAPRS Enews] AP: Cuomo Considering Many Revenue Options, inc. Millionaire's Tax

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Cuomo Considering Many Fiscal Options

by The Associated Press  November 30, 2011



Gov. Andrew Cuomo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cuomo>  says he's
considering a wide variety of revenue raising options, from his own
ideas for creating private sector jobs to the millionaire tax pushed by
the Assembly's Democratic majority.

In a round of radio interviews Wednesday, Cuomo wouldn't rule out
anything, including the millionaire tax he strongly opposed in the
current budget.

The Democratic governor said he's open to all the "best thinking" as
weakening state revenues have created an unexpected deficit and there's
a deficit of more $3 billion forecast in the next fiscal year.

But Cuomo, who has pledged not to raise taxes, wouldn't back any tax
proposal in the interviews.

He's crafting his 2012-13 budget proposal now for the legislative
session that begins in January

 

http://libn.com/2011/11/30/cuomo-considering-many-fiscal-options/

==============

 

Cuomo Hedges On Millionaire's Tax

A Journal News Editorial December 1, 2011


Who said the Occupy Wall Street movement was over, undone by a phalanx
of police, front-end loaders and fuzzy precepts? There was fresh
evidence Wednesday that the anti-inequality protesters are reshaping the
public policy debate in New York - including in the Governor's Office.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, facing a $3.5 billion budget deficit in 2012, has
changed his tune on taxes: What has long been an emphatic "No" against
raising taxes, or renewing a "millionaire's tax" due to expire at year's
end, has essentially morphed into "wait and see." The turnabout follows
months of sustained pressure - from OWS protesters, anti-poverty groups,
labor unions and fellow Democrats - to abandon the "no tax hike"
promise, a staple of Cuomo's 2010 campaign. (See video of Tuesday's
Editorial Board discussion on the topic
atwww.lohud.com/editorialspotlight.)

The governor has long maintained that he regards extending the state's
income-tax surcharge on the wealthy - it applies to individuals earning
$200,000 or more, $300,000 for families - as a tax hike, dispensing with
any hairsplitting over whether such a move constitutes an increase.

Such clarity now eludes him.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, crediting people "familiar with
(Cuomo's) thinking," said the governor is considering an overhaul of the
state's personal income tax rates that would raise revenue from high
earners and lower taxes for others. The article stated that one plan
under review included creating new, higher-income brackets. The changes
would be portrayed as a "fairer tax system based on reforms and
additional brackets," as a top administration official told the
newspaper.

The governor himself addressed the issue - sort of - in a radio
interview Wednesday with Albany's WGDJ-AM (1300). "I have not decided on
the economic program for the state, part of which will be how do you use
the tax code to create jobs," Cuomo said. "I'm in discussions, I have
ideas, but we have no decisions." New Yorkers are certainly paying
attention.

Cuomo, whose approval ratings have hovered near and above 70 percent for
months, would lose stature among business leaders for abandoning his
pledge on taxes.

But it would hardly mark the end of Cuomo's political world; in poll
after another, large majorities of voters have backed higher taxes on
the rich. More impetus came Tuesday, in a report from the Fiscal Policy
Institute. It showed steep income hits on low- and middle-income
earners, and for the rich, too. The wealthiest 1 percent accounted for
35 percent of the state's income in 2007; about 31 percent in 2008.

No matter how the math gets figured, decision time is fast approaching.

 

http://www.lohud.com/article/20111201/OPINION/312010009/Cuomo-hedges-mil
lionaire-s-tax

 

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