Numbers cruncher: Cuomo’s Actual Tax ‘Need’

Last month, says the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon, Gov. Cuomo predicated extending the “temporary” surtax on high incomes on “how much money” New York needs. With his budget plan now public, we know: “Assuming no further spending cuts, the governor needs to extend the full ‘millionaire tax’ long enough to raise an added $683 million in revenue for fiscal 2018, and $2.7 billion for fiscal 2019.” But if he holds spending to 2 percent growth, “he could cut the surtax in half in 2019, and eliminate it entirely after FY 2020.” Yet he wants to keep it in effect through 2020, “raising nearly $1 billion more than the state will need.” And he’s also extending the “completely unnecessary” Film and TV Production Credit, “by far the most egregious giveaway any state offers to Hollywood producers.” Eliminating that “would make the millionaire tax even less necessary.”