A major component of new legislation passed by lawmakers last week would be to cut taxes for 4.4 million New Yorkers by restructuring the state’s tax brackets.
Two bills (S.50001/A.40001 and S.50002/A.40002) were created and proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, as a way to boost the state’s economy and close a budget gap in the billions of dollars.
A surcharge, sometimes known as the millionaires tax, on individuals whose income is higher than $200,000 and families whose income is higher than $300,000, is set to expire on Dec. 31 this year. While the new brackets do not fully extend this surcharge, individuals in the new highest tax bracket, earning more than $2 million, would still have to pay a considerably higher tax rate than individuals in the second highest tax bracket.
E.J. McMahon of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute sat down with Ray Graf on WAMC’s Vox Pop radio show last Thursday to analyze what the new tax brackets do. The Legislative Gazette was invited to sit in on the discussion….
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