NY Families Need State’s Leaders to Boost Economy at Community Level, Not a Budget that Makes CEOs Richer
Albany, NY – Responding to Governor Cuomo’s executive budget proposal, Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, said:
“Until Governor Cuomo rejects the trickle-down myth, we’ll never have a budget that truly meets the needs of all families in New York. This budget plan is a mixed bag. There are some good proposals, some bad proposals, and some proposals that help but don’t go far enough. But this budget leaves our communities suffering so that the rich can keep getting richer.
“Governor Cuomo should take the Assembly’s lead and expand the millionaires’ tax and make it permanent – boosting the economy and raising the revenue to meet families’ needs. Contrary to false claims from Senate Republicans, cutting taxes for millionaires has never improved the economy; trickle down has failed for decades. It’s also time to close corporate tax loopholes and end programs that falsely promise jobs for corporate tax breaks. Trickle down economic development costs our state billions of dollars with little benefit for working and middle class New Yorkers.
“New York’s children are clear losers from Governor Cuomo’s timid approach to taxing the super rich. The executive budget proposes just ten percent of the funding that the courts have said is necessary for New York State to provide students with the “sound, basic education” that they’re constitutionally guaranteed.
“There’s more than enough money in New York State to meet people’s needs, but it’s controlled by a very small group of very wealthy people. This doesn’t just starve our government from being able to meet the needs of our families. It strangles our economy because there’s just not enough money moving around. In a world where eight men control as much wealth as half the population and a new Trump administration that will make this inequality even worse, New York must lead the way in reversing runaway inequality.”
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