Cross-posted to Jon’s Blog at DragonFlyEye.net.
Cuomo’s on a roll. First, in his state of the union he called health care and education “special interests” and now he’s talking about massive cuts during a recession, when families are being hit hardest. Governor Cuomo should check his spreadsheet again – the biggest chunk of New York State Medicaid is nursing home care.
The City School district gets over 80% of it’s funds from the state. The principal of my child’s school reports that the 20% across-the-board budget cut will mean massive layoffs and elimination of the programs that made the school successful. The cut in state revenue will have a similarly devastating effect to City programs. The Rec Centers are already stretched too thin.
And despite conservative attempts to use home budgeting metaphors (“just gotta tighten our belts”) we can’t just cut our way out of this. A better analogy would be chopping up the furniture when it gets cold.
The people that will be laid off are our neighbors. Once they are unemployed they won’t be shopping at local stores or renovating their homes, leading to more layoffs. Once unemployed they will be eligible for services. And the vicious cycle continues.
Everybody has to contribute their fair share. We’ve got to make sure the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share. Local residents worked long and hard to put into place the temporary income tax surcharge on income above $300,000. If Cuomo and the legislature eliminate the surcharge the state will lose about $5 billion a year, dollars that could go to keeping the current staffing at my daughter’s school and a property tax circuit breaker. As New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness Director Ron Deutsch puts it “It’s still a great time to be rich in New York.”
The millionaires in the top 1% will receive an average tax cut of $123,890. This handful of folks will pull in over a third of the entire Obama federal tax cut headed for New York. And while New York’s poverty level is at the highest rate in 20 years and as wages stagnate for most workers and drop for young college grads, Deutsch points out that over the last 30 years the richest 1% have seen their slice of New York income pie triple in size.
But Cuomo’s response is to cut taxes on the richest NYers and slash services for the hardest hit. Instead, Cuomo should listen to the Progressive Caucus’ proposal to capture the Bush/Obama income tax windfall. The state would pick up over $8 billion in revenue just by redirecting the Bush era tax cuts (which Obama kept alive).
We know that Wall Street precipitated the current economic mess and that the rest of us shouldn’t be the only ones cleaning it up. You and I have to pay tax every time we go to Staples, Home Depot or Charlotte Appliance but somebody buying stock on Wall Street doesn’t have to pay a penny in tax. Albany collects $16 billion a year on these stock transactions, but then refunds the entire pile back to Wall Street! By just holding onto a portion of that tax the state wouldn’t have to fire teachers and state workers and the rec centers and afterschool programs in the City could stay open.
There are sensible solutions to the budget crisis. We just have to make sure that everybody is putting away their rigid ideologies and their personal agendas.