By Azi Paybarah
Yesterday, I talked to State Senator Liz Krueger, a liberal and a tax wonk, about the emerging details of the governor’s tax plan. What her take boiled down was that if the tax code were reorganized to redistribute the overall burden more progressively that would be good; but if the overhauled system didn’t yield revenue for the state, that would be bad.
By those criteria, the plan announced today by Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders would be mixed news. It will bring the state an additional $1.9 billion in revenue, according to the announcement. That’s on the strength of increased taxes on the highest-earning New Yorkers.
However, the new revenue isn’t even half of the revenue that’s going to be lost from the impending expiration of the “millionaire’s tax” surcharge, and still leaves a large projected budget shortfall next year, which will have to be addressed either through spending cuts or by finding alternative streams of revenue.
On balance, Krueger isn’t satisfied.
