Governor Paterson is looking to make major spending cuts in order to close a significant budget gap (except for those that make generous donations to his campaign). However, Assembly Democrats are laughing at the former legislature and will do as much in the budget they are set to pass today. One of the biggest items in there that will make waves is the re-introduction of the millionaire's tax. That progressive measure will in turn help to fund another bright idea, a circuit breaker (no, not the electrical kind).
From Press Connects:
Assembly leaders submitted a bill Monday to increase income taxes on those making more than $1 million a year and bump up taxes higher for those making more than $5 million a year.
The extra money would pay for tax breaks for middle-class homeowners by linking their property taxes to a percentage of their household incomes.
The measures have been pushed by a teachers' union as an alternative to a school-property-tax cap backed by Gov. David A. Paterson and the Republican-controlled Senate. The Senate remains opposed to the Assembly's plan, making it unlikely to pass today.
"The Assembly will pass a circuit breaker and a millionaires' tax," said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County. "It's a step in the right direction. What we should be doing is reducing property taxes, not capping them."
The Assembly is doing the right thing here, though who knows if it is merely a political calculation and not a moral one. The Senate and the once-progressive Governor are opposed to such measures. Taking from the rich to give to the poor is a scary thing to Paterson and the slim Republican majority in the Senate, likely because that is how their campaigns are funded by and large.
For a while the Governor made decisions that looked like compromises and a way of currying favor with the Republicans after a stormy Spitzer reign. Now that we are a few months in to his term, it is way past the time that Paterson get on board for things that make sense for his supporters....unless he is looking to lose the favor of people that got him into the Senate (not counting his family name of course).
Well, at least the Assembly is protecting the majority of New Yorkers from him for now.
|