Tax on the Rich

by Scott Feldman

How do you close a 13 billion dollar NYS budget gap? Some Senate democrats think the way to do it is to raise the income tax on New York's highest earners. They're proposing that households earning more than $250,000 in taxable income a year would pay 8.25 percent, up from the current 6.85 percent. That's the highest rate anybody pays now. For those who earn more than $500,000, the tax rate would be 8.97 percent. Anybody lucky enough to make more than $1 million would pay 10.3 percent. Dowling College economic analyst Marty Cantor figures this could impact about 170 thousand Long Island tax filers. Our newest democratic Senator, Brian Foley, says he'd like to see the state's income tax brackets restructured, but is opposed to the bill. Same goes for democrat Craig Johnson, who tells News 12 that a tax increase should be the last resort. And from the dean of the Republican delegation, Dean Skelos, severe criticism of the democrats floating this idea. Skelos says, "they do not know how to stop taxing, once they start they are now down to 250 now and I guarantee you it is going to get down even lower to the 100 thousand range when this is all over with." Senate Majority Leader Malcom Smith says he's not convinced a tax increase is the right way to fix New York's budget crisis. Governor Paterson has said all options to fix the budget problem should be on the table, but he's also expressed concern that raising taxes would force wealthy people out of New York. Assembly Speaker Silver, like Foley, thinks the tax brackets should be refigured. He's proposed a tax on people making more than a million, but says he is willing to consider hiking taxes on people making less than that. Still, for those who think they are going to get hammered at a time when the economy is in bad, bad shape, now may not be the time to panic. All indications are this latest proposal from Albany doesn't have the votes to fly.     

Comments

[John]

Sigh...

When in doubt, rejiggle the graduated income tax, right? After all, it's only one of Marx's ten Pillars of Communism.

Taxing people based on numeric income is sloppy thinking, and is basically designed to cripple the areas like Long Island with a higher standard of living. It also breeds class resentment.

If we must raise taxes, and we want to better the economy rather than collapsing it, what we should be doing is raising taxes on income that isn't derived from effort.

If you profited from the stock market, took interest from a loan, or received a gift from your uncle, you may not be "rich" numerically, but the money came from risk rather than effort, didn't help the economy, and is therefore worth taxing.

If you run a successful business or work overtime to make ends meet on an expensive house, you're doing something good for the economy and should be encouraged, not overburdened.