After identifying New York’s escalating property taxes as a top priority for their campaigns, two candidates for governor have detailed individual plans which they say will alleviate taxpayers’ burden and curb tax growth.
Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer’s plan would increase STAR exemptions for homeowners under a certain income level
Governor Pataki has vetoed a bill that would have added an estimated
52,000 workers to the state payroll and could have threatened some
$300 million in federal aid.
The Council had urged the Governor to veto the bill earlier this
month.
The bill, which was passed by the Senate unanimously in March and
by the Assembly in late April after a lobbying campaign led by the
United Federation of Teachers, declares that home day-care providers
who earn at least some of their income from public subsidies will
become state employees, subject to the state's Taylor Law
The state Insurance Department has scheduled a June 28 hearing
in New York City to hear testimony on a proposal to increase New
York's workers' comp premiums by 7.5 percent, and a tax-like "assessment"
added to workers' comp bills by another 6.3 percent
State legislators should reject new health-insurance mandate bills
that would create huge increases in employers' taxes and health
insurance costs, and instead explore the potential in the health-insurance
policy innovation recently approved in Massachusetts, The Business
Council's health-policy specialist said in legislative testimony
today
ALBANYNew York once again leads the nation in combined state and
local taxes, and the total burden is now over $100 billion, the latest
authoritative data from the U.S. Census Bureau show.
The data for fiscal 2004, released today by the Census Bureau, put New
York’s per-capita tax burden at $5,260, 53 percent above the national
average of $3,447
The Business Council is urging Governor Pataki to veto a bill that would add an estimated 52,000 workers to the state payroll and could threaten some $300 million in federal aid.
The bill, S.6758, passed the Senate unanimously in March and was approved by the Assembly in late April after a lobbying campaign led by the United Federation of Teachers
Mr. Richard Platkin
Counsel to the Governor
Executive Chamber
The Capitol
Albany, New York 12224
Dear Mr. Platkin:
RE: S. 6758, and the expansion of New York’s public sector
The Business Council of New York State Inc. has reviewed S.6758, by Senator Spano, and respectfully urges that Governor Pataki veto this legislation
The state's new budget raises spending by nearly three times the
inflation rate this year, and will force spending to jump 30 percent
by 2008-09, Comptroller Alan Hevesi warned in a new report.
While criticizing Governor Pataki's original budget proposal for
unaffordable spending increases and too much borrowing, Comptroller
Hevesi said the Legislature "made matters worse by increasing
spending growth and the use of debt and one-shots, creating a two-year
gap as high as $13
New York's corporate tax is a "Potemkin village" of high rates and complicated exemptions, and "the rational thing to do is to get rid of it," the state's commissioner of taxation and finance told the Business Council's annual Conference on State Taxation.
"Our laws are ridiculously complicated," Commissioner Andrew Eristoff said
Three out of four New Yorkers say state government is doing a poor
or fair job overall, and 80 percent believe high taxes are hurting
the state's economic growth, a new poll commissioned by the Center
for Governmental Research (CGR) shows.
The poll of more than 2400 registered voters asked New Yorkers
for opinions on 20 issues impacting the state