Public News Service
1/10/12
Mike Clifford
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/24203-1
NEW YORK – The broad-based progressive coalition that rallied to keep New York’s “millionaire’s tax” in 2011 has a new target, saying it’s going after corporate tax loopholes in 2012.
Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, believes that well over a billion dollars in revenue could be generated this year alone, simply by closing loopholes that allow big corporations to dodge taxes.
“We want to make sure that we have enforcement of our current tax laws; that we create fairness in our existing tax system; and that it’s transparent, that we know how much companies are, in fact, paying.”
Governor Cuomo says he opposes raising taxes to close the state’s $2 billion budget gap, although he has proposed a commission to study ways to increase business collections and close tax loopholes.
Charlie Albanetti, communications director of Citizen Action of New York, says it isn’t fair for working families to shoulder a heavier tax burden than falls on highly-profitable corporations. He says the contrast in tax rates is dramatic.
“Over the past couple of years, a family of four making $58,000 paid 4.1 percent income tax. Companies like Travelers Insurance paid 0.1 percent income tax rate, American Express only paid 1 percent, and Verizon paid 2.6 percent.”
Michael Kink, executive director of the group Strong Economy for All, credits Occupy Wall Street with calling attention to the fairness issue in 2011, and says his group is part of that coalition again this year.
“We have labor unions, community groups, student groups, faith groups and the Occupy Movement – and this year, we’re getting the band together and taking it on the road again.”
Kink believes those combined forces can prod the governor to move from studying corporate loopholes to actually starting to close them this year.
