screen-shot-2011-12-07-at-105908-am-400x222-2090894E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center squared off against former state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky on a segment of NY1’s “Inside City Hall” last night.

E.J. began by informing moderator Errol Lewis that Governor Cuomo’s special session deal with the Legislature involves a significant tax increase, not a tax cut.

The state continues to have a structural budget imbalance that the tax increase won’t fix, E.J. pointed out.  He added: “I would actually predict … that Richard and many of his allies and friends will be back in no time saying ‘the tax increase is not enough and we’ve got to do more,’ because they don’t want to cut spending, and this doesn’t actually fill the entire [budget] gap either. There are significant financial problems here.”

Brodsky objected to this–but moments later said that E.J. “is not theoretically wrong.”

“More has to be debated and talked about, which includes the potential for further tax increases,” said the former assemblyman, a zealous advocate of the so-called “millionaire tax.”

In other words, in case you doubted it, there’s no such thing as enough.

About the Author

Tim Hoefer

Tim Hoefer is president & CEO of the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Read more by Tim Hoefer

You may also like

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

Internal Cuomo Administration Documents Showed Evidence of Harm from Nursing Home Order

State Health Department documents from June 2020, newly unearthed by congressional investigators, appear to show harmful effects from a controversial order requiring nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients. Read More

On Covid in Nursing Homes, There’s No Comparison Between Cuomo and Walz

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his political critics have something in common: They're both trying to drag Minnesota Governor Tim Walz into Cuomo's nursing home scandal. Cuomo’s attempt to hide behind Walz, li Read More

A Closer Look at $4 Billion in State Capital Grants to Health Providers

[Editor's note: This post was corrected after it came to light that records supplied by the Health Department gave wrong addresses for 44 grant recipients. The statistics and tables below were updated on July 18.] Read More