Over the weekend, a battle that we all have been fighting for the past five months was won. State leaders in Albany came to an agreement to enact a personal income tax increase for the wealthiest New Yorkers that will raise an additional $4 billion in sorely needed state funds.

This additional money will allow many of the initially proposed cuts – cuts to health care, programs for low-income people, and services for working families that would have caused tens of thousands of layoffs and devastating, unnecessary suffering – to be averted. And it will make our tax system fairer.

Unfortunately, the budget delays the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement, providing zero dollars over the next two years in court ordered school aid. The small amount of money added for schools is distributed based on politics rather than a fair formula. The federal stimulus package helped make up a lot of the initially proposed cuts to education funding. But, that money was a one-time deal. The state cannot continue to put off its constitutional obligation to fully and fairly fund our kids’ education.

The two new tax brackets, for those earning over $300k and $500k respectively, combined with winning substantial reform to the Rockefeller Drug Laws, expansion of the Bottle Bill, a $5 million increase to Advantage funding for after-school programs, and the potential expansion of Family Health Plus coverage to 400,000 more New Yorkers, all represent a marked shift in the way state government is operating and the incredible power of our grassroots movement.

The hard work of millions of New Yorkers and Americans last year to bring the opportunity for progressive change in our society, and the persistent demand for that opportunity to become reality since, has provided us with our first tangible success: proof that every rally we attend, every phone call we make, every email we send, and every door we knock on does help build a better government and a better society.

As always, when one battle is complete, another is heating up. With the legislature in session for almost three more months, we’ll be working to win Clean Elections this year. Very soon I’ll be in contact about how you can help start our major push for full public financing of campaigns in New York!

Your hard work truly paid off during this very long budget season. We all should be very proud of the campaigns we’ve waged and the change we’ve won. Our battles aren’t over just yet, but we know that going forward, we’ll be fighting in a better, stronger, more just New York.

Thank you,

Karen Scharff

Executive Director

Citizen Action of New York

Unshackle Upstate’s Brian Sampson is making the news circuit these last few weeks with the message that Fair Share Tax Reform would cause small businesses to fire workers (the Fair Share Tax Reform is making progress in Albany with bills that would create new NYS marginal tax brackets starting at $250,000). He says that 75% of small business owners pay taxes through personal income tax.

Ok, sounds like a reasonable concern, right?

Meanwhile, back in the reality-based community According to James Parrott, of the Fiscal Policy Institute, “only 1.4% of tax units with small business income were in the top two federal tax brackets, i.e., over $250K.” The VAST majority of small business owners don’t make that kind of money and therefore would never be subject to the Fair Share tax.

And let’s think about Unshackle Upstate’s logic for a minute. Imagine you are one of the rare group of small business owners netting over $250,000. The new Fair Share Tax Reform tax bracket costs you about $70 a week extra. Are you going to fire a worker to recoup that seventy bucks?

The good news is that Sampson’s disingenuous media forays are the last gasps of a sinking trickle down theory. Wanna see a New Yorker laugh in your face? Tell them that tax breaks for the rich create jobs.

Pictured above is Sarah at the Governor’s Town Hall Meeting in Rochester on Wednesday afternoon.