New York’s highest-paid union workers will be the chief beneficiaries of a tax break slipped into the state budget that makes their dues fully tax-deductible, an analysis has found.
The deduction, believed to be the first write-off of its kind in the nation, will cost $35 million and was put into the budget by Gov. Andrew Cuomo without any public debate, critics complained.
“It’s unbelievable Albany could even come up with another way to pay off politically powerful unions, but they did,” said Doug Kellogg of Reclaim New York.
But New York AFL-CIO president Mario Cilento said, “We are very grateful to the governor and legislators.”
The provision will benefit high-income union employees — such as downstate construction workers, and police officers, firefighters and teachers in the suburbs — who make more than $100,000 a year and itemize deductions on their state tax returns, according to E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy.
The average tax savings was estimated at $67.
© 2017 New York Post
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