Notwithstanding the headlines generated by Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s State of the State address, it takes some creative arithmetic to call the new governor’s property tax initiative a “$6 billion tax cut.” In fact, strictly speaking, Spitzer isn’t proposing a tax cut so much as a tax shift.

For further explanation, see E.J. McMahon’s NYFiscalWatch Memo.

Details of the proposal won’t become available until the governor presents his budget on Jan. 31. Presumably, he intends to follow through on the property tax plan he first unveiled during his gubernatorial campaign last June. We’ve posted that plan here.

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