Click here to read the Empire Center’s related analysis of IRS filing data.
The number of New York state residents whose income exceeded $1 million increased 16 percent between 2008 and 2012, reaching the highest point since 2008, state data reviewed by Gannett’s Albany Bureau showed.
New Yorkers making more than $1 million in taxable income in 2012 jumped to 41,414 filers, up from 35,705 in 2011 and exceeding the 35,788 millionaires in 2008, according to records from the state Department of Taxation and Finance.
Our database above lets you search by county the number of people who earned more than $200,000 and over $1 million in 2012.
Westchester County had the most making more than $1 million outside Manhattan with about 7,300, up 10 percent between 2008 and 2012, the most recent figures available.
Some counties also had large increases: up 38 percent in Erie County; 33 percent in Monroe and Dutchess counties; and 22 percent in Broome County.
It’s the latest rebound for the state’s wealthiest residents amid ongoing pressure from liberal groups and unions for New York leaders to increase taxes on the rich. Those groups said the growth in those making $1 million or more a year is another reason why the rich should pay more in taxes to fund schools, infrastructure and services for the needy.
“I think the evidence of the growing number of millionaires shows that a surcharge on millionaires doesn’t drive them out of the state,” said Billy Easton, executive director of the union-backed Alliance for Quality Education. “So asking them to pay a little more, it is a totally reasonable approach.”
Conservative groups said the increase in those making $1 million or more a year in New York doesn’t tell the full picture. New York had the slowest growth in the country in millionaires between 2011 and 2012, said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for State Policy.
He cited IRS records that showed the number of millionaires nationwide grew by 29 percent, from 304,000 to 392,000, between 2011 and 2012. In New York, it was up 15 percent, ranking last in the nation.
McMahon said the figures are exacerbated because wealthy people boosted their income reporting as much as possible in 2012 to avoid new, higher federal tax rates in 2013.
“We have a tax code that’s dependent on high-wealth people, and in a crucial year, we were at the bottom of the pile,” McMahon said.
Between 2010 and 2011, the number of millionaires in New York grew by 8.5 percent and was up 19 percent between 2009 and 2010, state records show. During the recession, millionaires in New York dropped 22 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.
© 2014 Gannett News Service
You may also like
The good, the bad and the ugly in Cuomo’s budget
“We are at the early stages of what shapes up as the biggest state and city fiscal crisis since the Great Depression,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center. “Borrowing and short-term cuts aside, the budget doesn’t chart any clear path out of it.” Read More
Economic Experts Discuss Long-Term Impacts of Coronavirus
"My prediction for now is this is going to be the most severe and prolonged fiscal crisis New York state and its local governments have seen, really since the Great Depression when government did not operate at the scale it now operates," Empire Center Research Director E.J. McMahon said. Read More
Medicaid cuts make the state budget, with some tweaks
Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the conservative-leaning think tank the Empire Center, suggested this is because the proposed cuts are meant to slow the otherwise rapid growth in Medicaid spending, which means an increase is still possible. Read More
Gov. Cuomo’s Lawsuit on Pres. Trump’s Tax Cuts Dismissed
But according to the Empire Center, a non-profit group based in Albany, the overall impact of the Trump tax cuts actually benefited most state residents. Read More
EDITORIAL: State schools continue spending more for less
As reported by the Empire Center last week, “The number of students enrolled in New York state public schools is the lowest recorded in 30 years.”
Since 2000, enrollment in public schools has declined by more than 10 percent statewide with most of it upstate as enrollment in New York City schools has increased 1.3 percent in the last 10 years. Students are not leaving to go to private or parochial schools either because they, too, are showing declines, down about 8 percent in the last decade. Read More
$1 billion semiconductor plant: ‘Flashy mega-project’ or ‘transformational investment’ for New York?
"The state is continuing its strategy of pursuing flashy mega-projects instead of making New York more attractive for all businesses. We're now in the second decade of this approach, and it's still failing to deliver the promised results," Girardin said. "This is the sort of economic development strategy that politicians turn to when they don't want to take on the tougher questions." Read More
Cuomo blames lawmakers for plate fee set by his administration
The new replacement policy, which was tucked into a press release announcing new plate designs, has been criticized as a "revenue enhancer wrapped in a public relations ploy" by E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York license plate fee increase draws criticism
"The 'current' $25 fee was for an optional plate choice," said E.J. McMahon, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy. "The new fee will be mandatory -- the first time ever. This is a revenue grab under the guise of a PR stunt. Yes, the plates need replacement. But they don’t cost $25 apiece to manufacture." Read More