Category: Testimony

Good morning, Senator Krueger, and thank you for this opportunity to testify before your task force today. Read More

Good morning, Senator Velella, and thank you for this opportunity to speak before your committee today. My name is Edmund J. McMahon, and I am senior fellow for ta Read More

  Thank you, Council Member Yassky. My name is Edmund J. McMahon, and I am senior fellow for tax and budgetary studies at the Center for Civic Innovati Read More

  Good morning, Senator Leibell, and thank you for this opportunity to testify today. My name is Edmund J. McMahon, and I am senior fellow for tax and budgetary studies at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Read More

Among the many aspects of the state budget that will have an impact on the economy of New York, I’d like to focus today on an issue of overriding importance – the status of the state personal income tax. Since 1997, the top rate of our state i Read More

I'd like to begin with two pointed observations about the 2007-08 Executive Budget and its impact on taxpayers and the economy: The budget will raise state taxes, in several significant respects. The budget will not provide l Read More

In my testimony today, I will not attempt to delve into the many issues surrounding the administration of the real property tax in New York. As this committee's other witnesses will attest, New York's current patchwork approach is both unfair and inefficient. The reliance on numerous local assessment districts, and the lack of a single assessment standard linked to a regular reassessment cycle, are glaring shortcomings of the system as it now exists. Read More

Economic conditions have obvious implications for the work of this Committee and for the Legislature in general. We are in the midst of a potentially severe and long-lasting global recession. But for New York State, the recession is only part of the problem. Fueled by the super-heated profits of the securities industry, mixed with gains from a now-popped real estate bubble, the surge in state tax revenues over the past five years was as big as anything New York has experienced during any previous five-year stretch in the last 35 years. Read More