Promising Signs For Shared Sacrifice In Albany

Despite the Governor's persistent denials of going the route of increased taxes on the wealthy, the chances of it happening are continuing to increase. No one knows for sure how much of a grip that the interests of the wealthy have on Paterson, but the Assembly and the Senate have other ideas. Hopefully, the talk of raising taxes on the most fortunate among us will be more than just words.

From The NY Times:

The Assembly, where Democrats have an overwhelming majority, has long supported increasing taxes on the wealthy, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, reiterated this month that there continued to be strong backing for the measure among his colleagues.

Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, did not propose any income tax increases in his budget proposal, but acknowledged in last month that “taxing the wealthy is probably going to be part of the solution if the deficit gets any worse, and all indications are that it probably will.”

That could leave the matter in the hands of the Senate, where Democrats won a narrow majority in November. Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, said that he planned to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would increase taxes on the rich, and that he expected his colleagues to have an active debate about the issue.

“There are a lot of us who feel that for the last 30 years we’ve been shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to middle-class families,” Mr. Schneiderman said on Tuesday. “Our conference is operating through consultation and discussion, and I expect we’ll be talking about restoring some additional tax brackets for upper-income New Yorkers as well as a lot of other options.”

A long time ago (meaning the 1940s) the richest people were taxed up to 94% of their earnings and yet continued to prosper just fine. They were not competing for a title in Forbes Magazine, but family wealth has always been shielded very well, even with the Estate tax in place. Of course there was that WWII going on and everyone really did give all of what they had to keep the country fighting and to keep it together.

We may not be in the middle of a World War at the moment, but the crisis we face is still daunting. It requires us to come together and adding a few percent to the tax rates at the top isn't going to hurt as much as the rich scream about the thought of it. Besides, we aren't talking about 94% taxation rates either.