Notwithstanding media coverage predicting New York’s “latest budget ever,” it’s worth noting that all of the state’s 2010-11 budget appropriations already have been adopted. What’s left hanging is a revenue bill encompassing $828 million in additional tax increases.
Assuming the pending legislation is adopted, New York’s per-capita state tax hikes over the past two years will come to $414 per capita — far more than any state including California, which has raised taxes by $312 per capita, according to this estimate. In fact, New York alone accounts for fully 29 percent of all the state tax increases proposed and enacted since 2009. This may qualify New York politicians for yet another dubious achievement award.
Senate Democrats are stalling the bill while they push for greater administrative autonomy for the State University of New York (SUNY), and for a contingency plan that would give Governor Paterson greater leeway to adjust spending if budgeted federal Medicaid revenues do not materialize. However, Senate Democrats have expressed no objection to the proposed tax increases, which the Assembly passed July 1 and which Paterson had agreed to sign last month, before the Senate started stalling.
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