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Cuomo's Republican concept of shared sacrifice

by: devtob

Thu Feb 03, 2011 at 19:05:51 PM EST

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's first budget calls for the first reduction in state spending in 16 years, and does that by reducing the state workforce by about 10,000, cutting state aid to public education by 7.3 percent (many school districts would see larger cuts), cutting 10.7 percent from the State University of New York, cutting aid to hard-pressed municipalities by 2 percent, etc.

But while Cuomo emphasized "shared sacrifice" in his budget message, he is adamantly opposed to extending New York's millionaire's tax, a modest income tax surcharge on those lucky few who make more than $200,000 a year.

So, under a Democratic governor, most New Yorkers will be making serious sacrifices in tough times, except the rich.

More, below.

devtob :: Cuomo's Republican concept of shared sacrifice

In campaigning for his austerity budget, Cuomo has been railing against "special interests," by which he means unions that represent public employees.

He is supported in his campaign by the Committee to Save New York, which represents the special interests of billionaires, millionaires, and NYC commercial real estate owners.

Tom Robbins, in his valedictory column at the Village Voice, notes that New York's income inequality compares unfavorably to banana republics.

While this income inequality grows by the hour, the talk in Albany and City Hall is that we cannot ask this luxury class to carry any more of the burden.
These politicians hold that the only acceptable solution to an estimated $10 billion state budget deficit is to cut programs that mainly serve the poor and middle class, while asking state workers to do more with less.
The no-new-taxes zealots are so wedded to this notion that they are even looking to immediately shut down the modest so-called "millionaire's tax," which expires at the end of this year.

Robbins also relates a telling story, about a NYC real estate empire scion who's a leader of the Committee to Save New York:

One of the co-chairmen of this group is a young man named Rob Speyer who is heir to one of New York's great real estate fortunes.
I am sure he has matured enormously since then, but some 15 years ago, when we were reporters working in the same newsroom, his idea of a big investigative scoop was a sting on cab drivers: He left wallets with $100 bills in the back of taxis, and then waited to see if drivers returned them, cash safely tucked inside. Those that didn't pass this test got their pictures in the paper, labeled as rip-off menaces.
You read the stories and wondered, if the tables were turned, how many photos of reporters, editors, and real estate tycoons we might see.
Speyer's most recent foray was to buy Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in hopes of replacing rent-regulated middle-class tenants with free-market apartments filled with upper-income residents. This enormous greed resulted in default and the biggest real estate debacle in recent city history.
All in all, this group does not inspire great confidence, and it is fairly frightening to think they may be setting our state's agenda.

Cuomo raised $25 million-plus for his cakewalk campaign, a lot of it from NYC real estate and financial types like Speyer.

Obviously, New York has to balance its budget, and doing so in tough times will involve cuts in services and state aid, and givebacks from public employee unions.

But those cuts should be somewhat balanced by tax increases (or in this case, extensions) on those who will not suffer from the cuts in services.

FYI, a recent Marist poll found that New York respondents favored extending the millionaire's tax by about the same margin that Cuomo won with in November -- 64-33.

Again, Cuomo is a Democrat, who wants to be President, according to a Fox News hack.

The DINO label mostly applies to Blue Dog Democrats from red/purple states and Congressional districts.

So far this year, it also applies to Andrew Cuomo.

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Cuomo's Republican concept of shared sacrifice | 5 comments

A conservative talk show host in Albany (4.00 / 1)

said today that a drinking game triggered by Cuomo saying "special interests" would get you drunk quickly.

by: devtob @ Fri Feb 04, 2011 at 00:18:12 AM UTC

Cuomo's concept of sharing (4.00 / 1)

Assembly Speaker Silver floated the idea to link extension of un-weakened rent regs in June to the property tax cap so beloved by the NY GOP and our new governor. The gov immediately came down on him like a ton of bricks. Without that linkage, the chances are good that any gains made by tenants in the Roberts v. Tishman Speyer Properties, L.P. decision will have to be traded away.

And yes, Rob Speyer, the Co-Chair of the "Committee to Save New York," is the same Rob Speyer who is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Tishman Speyer Properties, L.P., the defendants who lost the Roberts decision, and then defaulted on their Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village loan, leaving some 11,000+ tenants screwed and investors with losses in the billions. It's outrageous.

by: JohnS @ Fri Feb 04, 2011 at 15:34:25 PM UTC

Cuomo's caving to the wealthy special interests (4.00 / 4)

with his bassackwards idea of not continuing the millionaire's tax.

Frankly, the whole state needs to switch from a reliance on regressive taxation to progressive taxation, especially if there's going to be a property tax cap in place.

Not that Mario's boy is willing to admit this.

by: JML @ Fri Feb 04, 2011 at 16:26:39 PM UTC

Income Inequality: US vs. Egypt (4.00 / 1)

Fellow TAPper Andrew C. White linked to this enlightening article on his Facebook the other day.

It details that income inequality, which is one of the sparks of the popular democratic uprisings in the Middle East, is actually worse in our country than it is over there.

The link also contains a report detailing how most Americans don't even know this, despite the fact that they would prefer greater income equality more akin to European nations which practice a more socialist economic model.

But the only people I see rallying these days are Tea Party dittoheads. And the only "progressive" Democrats I see are the Cuomo and Obama type, and they ask those of us who have nothing to give more so that those who already have everything can hang on to their precious wealth.

What happens to a middle class man in this type of political-economic situation?

"He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population or wealth."

I'm not going to tell you who wrote that. Look it up for yourself and read the entire document from whence it came. Therein lies the answer to this entire problem.

by: Soundpolitic @ Fri Feb 04, 2011 at 18:37:07 PM UTC

The millionaire's tax, regressive taxes, and tax cap failure in MA (0.00 / 0)

The millionaire's tax is $300,000 per family, $200,000 for an individual. There was an attempt to raise the ceiling to $350,000 for those living in the NY metro area where housing costs are prohibitive. That's fine by me as long as they reinstate the tax.

The most obscene are the tax rates for state and local taxes for those making over $565k compared to earners in the 2nd quin-tile: about $55k-$100k, which are about double the percentage of those making $565k+

The regressive taxes, 2 percent tax cap, and failure to extend the millionaire's tax will destroy NY's working and middle-class income families. There's a more thoughtful way to do this and provide fairness for middle-income families who are paying way too much in local taxes.

This is an excellent piece about MA's tax cap and its failures. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=vi...
Remember, before this went into effect, the state poured cash into local CSDs in anticipation of the cap. This is not the case in NY where every district is getting cut.

by: Rocklander @ Sun Feb 06, 2011 at 13:55:06 PM UTC