There is a growing sense in the capital that legislators are likely to turn to an income tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help close the state's $15 billion deficit, now that Democrats control the Senate, the Assembly and the governor's office.
The Assembly, where Democrats have an overwhelming majority, has long supported increasing taxes on the wealthy, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, reiterated this month that there continued to be strong backing for the measure among his colleagues.
That could leave the matter in the hands of the Senate, where Democrats won a narrow majority in November. Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, said that he planned to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would increase taxes on the rich, and that he expected his colleagues to have an active debate about the issue.
"There are a lot of us who feel that for the last 30 years we've been shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to middle-class families," Mr. Schneiderman said on Tuesday. "Our conference is operating through consultation and discussion, and I expect we'll be talking about restoring some additional tax brackets for upper-income New Yorkers as well as a lot of other options."
In my work as a board member of the Progressive States Network, and in my reporting on New York state politics for The Uprising, I have come to know Schneiderman as one of the nation's most promising and aggressive progressives in local politics. This guy is a movement progressive through and through, and, as the Times notes, he's going up against his own Majority Leader, Malcolm Smith, to try to equalize the tax system in one of the most unequal states in America. And he's doing it in a state where it's clearly necessary. As the Times reports, "since the mid-1970s, the state has cut its top tax rate from 15.375 percent to 6.85 percent," giving it the lowest top tax rate in the tri-state area.
Polls show New Yorkers overwhelmingly support raising taxes on millionaires instead of slashing basic services. That gives Schneiderman and Empire State progressives the wind at their back in what will likely shape up to be one of the most important intra-party fights in the country. New York is, after all, one of the largest economies on the planet, and so taking real steps toward tax fairness there will have national implications, especially considering such steps will require a battle with the state's powerful elite.
If you live in New York, get in touch with your legislator and ask that they support tax fairness, and then join the Working Families Party, which has been the key backer of these kinds of populist economic fights.
Otherwise, stay tuned - this kind of tax fight is likely coming to your state as budget deficits get worse. |
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