Faith-based budgeting
If the Legislature had no other choice but to hike taxes to fund essential health care and education and fill gaping budget holes, there would be no protest from us. But as lawmakers race to meet tonight’s midnight deadline, they are planning to raise taxes by a calculator-busting $7 billion — even though there is no deficit. Near-term books are balanced because Congress sent $12 billion in aid and income taxes came in higher than anticipated.
And so the Assembly and Senate now ask wealthy New Yorkers to pony up far more not out of necessity, but as a perverse progressive political performance.
Legislators on the far left insist that added taxation won’t drive the wealthiest New Yorkers away. Even if that’s true, as the risk of tax flight on the margins has long been overstated, why risk it? Raising taxes this much when the state’s economic future is this tenuous is playing roulette with our fiscal future.
The top 5% of income tax filers already finance 60% of state government. Even a handful of rich folks fleeing can wallop school aid and Medicaid. And big companies whose employees went all-remote during COVID learned they could be productive without paying sky-high Manhattan office rents.
Now, 20% of corporate executives say they’ll reduce their office space in 2021. Firms like JP Morgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers are subleasing hundreds of thousands of square feet. Microsoft, Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs are ogling space in Florida, which has no income tax.
Why is the Legislature intent on giving them a fresh incentive to skedaddle?
Even sillier, New York’s tax-hike push comes as congressional Democrats weigh income tax increases to help fund President Biden’s infrastructure plan, increases that could help re-balance America’s regressive tax code, while reducing rich people’s interstate migration to lower their tax burdens.
If dumb Dems push ahead with the hike, Cuomo must wield his veto pen, forcing lawmakers to vote individually to override. He may be diminished, but he’s still the governor.