Tag: Andrew Cuomo

Governor Cuomo’s 2014-15 Executive Budget would devote more resources to initiatives described as “tax cuts” than any state budget we’ve seen in quite a few years. This in itself is an encouraging sign of the recognition that New York needs to do more to shed its reputation as a high-cost, high-tax state. Read More

High-income New Yorkers are probably the least stable, consistent and reliable segment of the city's income tax base. According to state tax data, there were 49,000 city households with adjusted gross income of more than $500,000 as of 2007. They earned $135 billion that year. Read More

There are budget tricks, and there are budget tricks. Some governors go to enormous lengths and expense to improve the way their finances look. They sell highways or government buildings, delay worker paychecks or tax refunds, or concoct new and costly ways to borrow money. Read More

For upstate homeowners, the centerpiece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed $2.2 billion tax-cut plan is a two-year "freeze" on the growth of New York's smothering property taxes. An analysis of tax rates in two local municipalities — one urban, one suburban — reveals that Capital Region homeowners' rebates could be significantly more modest than advertised. Read More

During his budget address last week, Cuomo presented a chart showing how a self-imposed two-percent cap on state government spending growth would change the $10 billion deficit that he bridged in the 2011 budget into a $2 billion surplus by 2016. But E.J. McMahon, president of the right-leaning Empire Center, points out that the number is dependent upon “the magic footnote": It assumes $7.7 billion in future cutsthat are not lined out in the state's latest financial plan.“Has he created a $2 billion surplus? In a word, no. … This is an aspiration.” Read More

‘Building on Success” was the theme of Gov. Cuomo’s election-year budget presentation in Albany this week. But while Cuomo boasts he’s got New York headed in the right direction, the latest economic and demographic indicators suggest we still have a long way to go. Read More

One fiscal watchdog called that surplus an illusion. "It's purely aspirational," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank. He said a more realistic projection shows New York with a $2 billion deficit in two years rather than a $2 billion surplus. Read More

E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center said that adopting the budget wouldn’t lead to the $2 billion surplus Cuomo proposes using to offset the tax cuts, though he said it’s a fine goal. Instead, by traditional measures, it has budget gaps of $1.6 billion in 2016, $2 billion in 2017 and $3 billion in 2018. “He has basically changed the rules,” McMahon said. “ … It’s like a coach saying we’ve not only won more games, we’ve already scored 30 more points, when it’s actually his goal to score 30.” Read More