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Breaking: Fair Share Tax Deal Reached

by: phillip anderson

Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 17:11:57 PM EDT

It appears that deal has been reached to ask a bit more of those New Yorkers who can most afford it instead of balancing the state's budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. Liz has the scoop.

There is a tentative three-way deal on hiking the personal income tax on wealthy New Yorkers, multiple Democratic sources confirm.
The agreement - assuming it holds - sets up the following three tiers:
- $300,000 to $500,000: 7.97 percent.
- $500,000 to $1 million: 8.47 percent.
- $1 million and above: 8.97 percent.
This increase will sunset in five years.
The current top rate is 6.85 percent for those who make $40,000 and above.
This is a big win for the Fair Share Tax Reform crew, which is being led by the Working Families Party, because the threshold for the PIT increase had previously been $500,000.
It's also a big cave for the governor, who had called a tax increase on the rich a "last resort," although he wavered back and forth on that frequently.

I'd add the Working Families Party to the winners column along with the Assembly Democrats and I agree with Liz that the losers column includes The Governor, The Mayor and the Senate Majority Leader.

Good news from Albany. Hopefully this "tentative" deal will hold.

phillip anderson :: Breaking: Fair Share Tax Deal Reached

Tags: Fair Share Tax Reform, Millionaire's Tax, Working Families Party, WFP, taxes, Budget, David Paterson, (All Tags)

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Breaking: Fair Share Tax Deal Reached | 5 comments

Good news, everybody! (4.00 / 4)

I'll hold my breath until it's passed into law but this is great news. We need the Fair Share tax bill badly and hopefully this will help hold the line against certain cuts to education and healthcare.

by: BingChester @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 22:07:09 PM UTC

Guess I was wrong.... (4.00 / 1)

...had been thinking not enough of our legislators were able to do this simple math. Maybe the state won't go broke and have to sell their good-looking legislative staffers to oil-rich sheiks looking for 53rd wives after all....

All snark aside, though, this is really good news.

by: robinia @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 23:47:09 PM UTC

Moving in the right direction (0.00 / 0)

This is a step in the right direction. It's still a long way from perfect but at least moving closer to a proper tax structure. Of course I am not going to get overly excited until it is a law.

by: MattS @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 13:13:36 PM UTC

Assembly leads...again (4.00 / 1)

I am NO big fan of Shelley Silver and the city would not be in MTA hell if he had not held up the congestion pricing proposal...BUT...in the absence of power coming from the Governor's office and the 3 Amigos holding the Senate hostage, it is good to see Assembly Democrats take on the right and necessary choices. This is a great step forward to a sounder tax policy and fiscal responsibility lacking in Albany oh these many years.

Tax the Church.

by: furiousdee @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 14:14:25 PM UTC

Standing up to Golisano (4.00 / 1)

With the threats he's made about spending money against people who vote for this bill, its great to see that not everybody will kneel to kiss his ring.

Don't judge other people by your own limitations.

by: RussElba @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 15:28:53 PM UTC