Governor Cuomo’s tax-hike spin machine is in overdrive. The governor just issued an “op-ed” on tax reform that claims the state’s current income tax code “is just not fair,” implying strongly that filers with low-incomes pay taxes at the same rate as millionaires.

Fairness is a subjective concept, but the governor’s op-ed is wildly misleading.

He begins by repeating a favorite canard of the “millionaire tax” proponents:

I have posed the following question to Albany veterans, befuddling almost all: at what income level does the State’s top personal income tax rate become effective? Answers range from about $100,000 to $1 million. Virtually no one guesses the correct answer: only $20,000 for an individual taxpayer; and only $40,000 for a two-earner family. So, in New York under the permanent tax code, an individual making a taxable income of only $20,000 pays the same marginal tax rate as an individual making $20 million. It’s just not fair.

A few sentences later, he says “to me ‘fairness’ dictates that the more you make the more you pay and the higher your income the higher your rate.”

Taken together, these statements are clearly designed to leave readers with the strong impression that the guy making $20,000 and the guy making $20 million are treated the same — that, in other words, the New York State personal income tax is not progressive.  But this is wrong. And any one of the dozens of top-notch tax policy experts working for the governor in his Division of Budget and Department of Taxation and Finance could have told him so.

In fact, New York has one of the most progressive income taxes in the country, as documented in this 50-state study by the respected and non-partisan Minnesota Center for Public Finance.   Check out this table, lifted directly from the report, based on the ratio of taxes paid by married filers in high and low income levels:

screen-shot-2011-12-05-at-44312-pm1-6079154

And this one:

screen-shot-2011-12-05-at-44338-pm-9665082

Then there’s this study by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which shows how New York’s treatment to flow-income working households is among the most favorable of any state.  In fact, a two-parent family of four in New York doesn’t even begin paying taxes until its income surpasses $40,300.

Middle-class New Yorkers certainly could use a tax break.  The tax code has plenty of problems and needless complexities that need fixing. And it’s good to hear the governor suggesting he’d like to index the tax brackets to adjust with inflation going forward.

But most of Cuomo’s tax reform article is a mix of hype and inaccuracy, designed to make the Legislature and the public more receptive to his push for higher marginal rates — because he wants the revenue in place before he releases his budget in late January.

You may also like

Highlights of Albany’s Bloated and Belated Budget

The state Legislature approved the last of nine budget bills Thursday evening, 38 days after the start of the fiscal year. Here are some highlights of the fiscal impact of final spending plan: Top lines Read More

Forcing Homes to Switch to Electric Heat is not a Good Policy

  New York has some of the most ambitious climate goals in the country: electric school buses by 2035, zero emissions electricity by 2040, etc. Why New Yorkers, who already consume less energy per capita than any state (other than Rhode Island), s Read More

After Tariff Shock, Albany Should Face its New Fiscal Reality

This year, for once, state lawmakers' failure to pass a timely budget could prove to be a stroke of luck. When President Trump rolled out his on April 2, Albany leaders had not agreed on a spending plan for the f Read More

New York’s Proposed ‘MCO Tax’ Would Generate a Fraction of What Lawmakers Expected

The Hochul administration's proposed "MCO tax" would generate far less than the $4 billion in extra federal aid anticipated by state lawmakers when they approved the concept this spring, according to documents obtained by t Read More

Cuomo’s House Testimony Added New Misinformation about Covid in Nursing Homes

Throughout the scandal over former Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes, Cuomo and his administration repeatedly spread bad information – misstating how its policies had worked, understating death Read More

Hochul Hides the Specifics of a Looming Tax on Health Insurance

The Hochul administration has requested federal approval for a multibillion-dollar "MCO tax" on health plans without announcing the move or providing details to the public. As by l Read More

New Yorkers’ Health Costs Spiral as Officials Take Credit for ‘Savings’

The latest round of health insurance premium hikes announced by New York regulators adds to evidence that state policies are drowning consumers instead of helping them. Late last mo Read More

What Paul Francis Got Wrong About the Empire Center’s Nursing Home Research

In February 2021, the Empire Center published the first independent analysis of the Cuomo's administration much-debated directive ordering Covid-positive patients into nursing homes. The report found that the directive was associated with a statistically significant increase in resident deaths in the homes that admitted the  infected patients. Read More