Albany near deal to $oak the rich
New York lawmakers are closing in on a state budget deal that will likely increase taxes on top earners and big businesses by billions of dollars, sources told The Post.
Legislators and Gov. Cuomo over the weekend ironed out the final terms of the Empire State’s mammoth $200 billion spending proposal — including a so-called “millionaire’s tax” — but broke on Sunday for the Easter holiday.
They were expected to reconvene in Albany on Monday — in person or remotely — to wrap up talks and possibly vote on the budget, which was due on April 1. Sources said the agreement is expected to include tax hikes and additional revenues totaling roughly $5 billion.
The proposal would make New York City’s wealthiest pay the highest combined state and income tax in the country, after California, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Big Apple millionaires would face a combined local tax rate of between
13.5 percent and 14.8 percent, the report said. The Golden State currently has the highest top income-tax rate in the nation, 13.3 percent on income over $1 million.
Under the budget plan, single filers reporting more than $1 million of income and joint filers reporting more than $2 million would see their income-tax rate spike from 8.82 percent to 9.65 percent.
It would also involve creating two new tax brackets: one in which income over $5 million would be taxed at 10.3 percent and the other where income over $25 million would be taxed at 10.9 percent.
The state’s corporate franchise tax would also to 7.25 percent from 6.5 percent through 2023.
The additional tax revenue would be used for schools, to provide funds for undocumented workers, for small businesses and for tenants who are behind on their rent, the Journal reported.
Tax hikes have been the subject of intense negotiations. The Senate and Assembly proposed roughly $7 billion in revenue raisers earlier this month, while the Cuomo administration argued the state needed closer to $2.5 billion to fund recovery efforts.
Fiscal watchdogs, Democrats representing moderate areas in suburban and upstate districts, and even Sen. Chuck Schumer argued that taxes didn’t need to be raised because of the billions in federal stimulus money New York received over the last year.
The nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission was among those arguing that New York doesn’t need to hike taxes to plug holes.
“The state appears poised to enact a massive tax increase despite having $22 billion more resources available over the next two years than was anticipated when the governor proposed the budget in January,” CBC President Andrew Rein told The Post.