Cuomo Budget

[dgriffin]

FYI:


Letter to Editor
Times Herald Record, April 1, 2011
(Middletown, NY)

Cuomo: a rich man's budget

Cuomo's self-celebratory "on-time budget" does not thrill those of us working to address the growing gap between the wealthiest New Yorkers and the middle-class, which, sadly, has few champions in the new administration in Albany.

This is a rich man's budget that gives massive tax breaks to the top 1 percent of earners and cuts services for the rest of us. The Cuomo budget will guarantee huge increases in property taxes to fund what's left of vital services.

Will the Cuomo budget help laid off or underemployed workers paying 20 percent, 30 percent or more of their family income in property taxes? Not at all.

Thanks to big money campaign contributors — who wrote their own golden ticket into this budget — already-low taxes paid by Wall Street as a percentage of income will be even lower and the percent of income paid by Main Street will be even higher.

Cuomo's "on-time budget" will have discordant, unfair and brutish consequences for years to come.

Gioia Shebar
Gardiner, NY

(The author is co-founder of the Omnibus Consortium and founder of taxnightmare.com)

[JGRobinson]

Coumo signed the Budget on time, thats a good start. He did not Pen it. Just remember, there plan left 98% of the collections and spending unchanged! Our Electoid Albanizers penned and pushed this through. Glad its done, but 2% cuts only steps us back a year or less, 5% or more really is needed to begin fixing NY and it has to happen year after year, not just once in a lifetime.

I will never support more taxes for any citizen of our country, rich or poor. That is a deflection cry and Squawking point devised by the Dems to keep us looking and drooling at a few billionaires bank accounts instead of how Republi-Crats are spending the Trillions they collect from us every year.

Even if we can agree on who is rich, 1 Million, 10 Million, etc, then take 50% of their Earnings every year. Their Millions won't eliminate the overspending in the Billions by Bi-Parts!

One last note, they have plenty of money to move out of the state or country and they will move. Ask Limbaugh, Golisano and 500 other NY Capitalists how much they saved by taking Patterson's advice and leaving the state pronto!

Don't hate, create!

[dgriffin]

Gail Shebar wasn't hoping to stand the current order of society on end. Her wish was for passage of a circuit breaker provision for protection of ordinary homeowners. The cb proposal would limit one's annual payment of property tax to a figure indexed to income, sparing young families and those of us who are retired and who will indeed leave New York State.

A study showed that the circuit breaker tax relief program could be funded by the state's STAR rebate check program, but when that money evaporated into the general fund, cb proponents pegged their hopes on keeping some taxes on the rich to pay for the proposal.

But we elect the rich to be our rulers and it is not realistic to expect they will tax themselves more than us.

[Swimmy]

The budget is not a rich man's budget. It is a "wholly shit we're broke" budget that does not go far enough. Take, for example, the Office of Court Administration (OCA). It's inception began in 1984 or 1985. It started out with one judge and one secretary. Now it has roughly 12,000 employees to administer our courts! It's ludicrous, especially when you consider that the courts managed just fine without this agency. Cuomo told the OCA to make some big cuts. The director of the OCA could only find about $20,000. Cuomo found another $70 million in cuts to the OCA's budget. In retaliation, rather than layoff the worthless OCA employees, the OCA has ordered no more overtime for court security. Courts will only open to the public at 9:15 and close by 4:45. All trials and other court appearances must adjourn by 5 pm.

I think it's disgusting that the public will suffer due to this pissing match, but rather than look at what really needs to be cut (top heavy administrators), they'd rather hurt the public. However, I do commend Cuomo for having the balls to cut out so much from the budget.

[dgriffin]

Apr 2, 2011 11:52:19 GMT -5 Swimmy said:

Take, for example, the Office of Court Administration (OCA). It's inception began in 1984 or 1985. It started out with one judge and one secretary. Now it has roughly 12,000 employees to administer our courts! It's ludicrous, .

Good example of waste. But no matter how it happens there needs to be a reduction of property taxes if the state wants to have anyone left inside its borders to pay them.

[Swimmy]

I couldn't agree more. However, the state apparently has a different plan: set up road blocks on the PA-NY border to run sweeps of those buying gas and cigarettes from PA.

[dgriffin]

Yes, Massachusetts tried that some years back as they tried to catch those running over the border to New Hampshire to buy liquor. Made fools of themselves and produced a lot of voter discontent. Even Yankee Magazine made fun of the Massachusetts State Highway Patrol.

The Mass. cops sat in New Hampshire liquor store parking lots in plain cars and called license plate numbers over to their cohorts back on the other side of the border. That would be the only sure way to catch someone smuggling a tank of gas, too, I'd guess. Sure is fodder for ridicule.

[JGRobinson]

State border guards, that aught to be cheap!

[JGRobinson]

Funny, we cant stop Illegals from entering the country but they would seriously try to catch someone driving across a state line to save smoke taxes. Who's the crook here?

[dgriffin]

Apr 3, 2011 4:08:26 GMT -5 JGRobinson said:

Funny, we cant stop Illegals from entering the country but they would seriously try to catch someone driving across a state line to save smoke taxes. Who's the crook here?

I suppose this will sound extreme, but I no longer think of our government as "we." They are our rulers and they evidently can do (or not do) anything they want. I base this view on a preponderance of evidence that indicates overall American voter dissatisfaction on issues that never change. We no longer have control, if we ever did.

[dgriffin]

Here's in interesting side to the Cuomo Budget:





April 3, 2011, 7:00 am
For New York’s Well-to-Do, What to Do With Tax Windfall?


By ASHLEY PARKER

Some of the New Yorkers who stand to benefit most from Albany’s decision to kill the temporary income tax surcharge on the state’s high earners — the so-called millionaires’ tax — do not feel like millionaires.

“Prices keep rising,” said Jamie Cohen, who works in advertising sales and was on the way to an Equinox Fitness Club on the West Side Thursday. “It’s like New York is immune to everything; $250,000 here is different than $250,000 anywhere else.”

The surcharge, set to expire at the end of this year, was first imposed in 2009 and applies to single filers who earn more than $200,000 and joint filers earning more than $300,000. Under its provisions, a married couple making $350,000 paid an additional $3,500 in tax; a couple that earned $550,000 paid an extra $11,660; and a couple making $1 million paid an additional $21,200.

But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s new budget does not extend the tax, and well-to-do New Yorkers will no longer have to pay it, beginning in the 2012 tax year.

Some are thinking about how to spend the money. With the economy still rebounding, many say they are skipping tropical vacations or new gadgets for what they hope will be smart payoffs in the long term.

Mr. Cohen, 34, said that he and his wife made close to half a million dollars a year, and that they had been considering putting their savings from taxes toward their 2-year-old son’s education.

“The truth is to decide if we can send him to school five days a week, like we want, versus what it costs to do three days a week,” Mr. Cohen said. “If I could spend my money smartly, I’d put it back into the education of my child.”

Daniel Klaus, a venture capitalist who said he made more than a half-million dollars annually, had the same idea.

“I invest in a lot of small companies, so I would probably invest more money in media and tech start-ups,” Mr. Klaus, 37, said.

Waiting for a friend outside Landmarc, a restaurant at the Time Warner Center, Mr. Klaus said he probably would not spend the money at fancy restaurants or on special nights out. “I do all that stuff anyways,” he said.

“It’s probably not going to have a super meaningful effect on my day-to-day life,” Mr. Klaus said. “But where it will have an affect is, for me, investing more.”

CONTINUED AT:

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/for-new-yorks-well-to-do-what-to-do-with-tax-windfall/?partner=rss&emc=rss

[JGRobinson]

I agree Dave, Rich is a word with many meanings, they are all perspective. I am filthy rich to someone from Botswana but not so much so compared to Switzerland. Here Im Middle class yet Im taxed like there is no end to my wealth!