Written by Rob Lillpopp on August 6, 2010 – 5:24 am
Tom Precious of the Buffalo News looks at the many ways the new state budget will taxes New Yorkers and how our leaders in Albany continue to spend and create an atmosphere of distrust.
“Gov. David A. Paterson has been making a curious sales pitch as he assesses the finally completed state budget.
“It doesn’t tax much, either,” Paterson said.
How much is not much? Try $1 billion — at least.
New or higher taxes and fees on everything from tobacco products, court filings, clothing purchases and Internet hotel bookings will bring Albany just over $1 billion this year, while other “revenue actions,” like trying to collect taxes on Indian cigarette sales, are worth another $500 million or so.
Paterson’s positive spin may not be entirely off base. Depending on which side you believe, taxpayers last year paid an additional $6 billion to $8 billion — a record.
“After you’ve enacted the largest tax increase by an order of magnitude in New York’s history, nothing looks like that much. But this would still rank among the largest single tax increases ever,” E. J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative group, said of the newly enacted budget’s tax tab…
The $100 million in delayed credits this year balloons to about $900 million in extra revenue for Albany in each of the next two years. And while the state calls it a “deferral” of credits, most groups believe the money will never be seen.
Business groups said the credits were viewed as a promise by companies that had already budgeted for tax breaks when they bought equipment, hired workers or expanded operations.
Kenneth Pokalsky, the chief lobbyist at the Business Council of New York State, said the state’s economic development and job creation efforts are “incentive based” with features like tax credits for manufacturing equipment purchases or real estate development in blighted areas.
“This is going to take the air right out of those efforts,” he said.
Critics said the state can’t be trusted by businesses.”
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