New York’s budget won’t hike income tax rates, disappointing progressives

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Personal income tax rates won’t increase in New York’s state budget, a move that never seemed to gain much traction in the talks and a development that disappoints progressive advocates who had called for the increase.  The budget is expected to be finalized this week and is more than a month late.  Progressives this year had organized an effort to once again increase taxes on the highest income earners in New York in order to fund a variety of safety net programs in the state.  « This year was a critical opportunity to address growing inequality in New York, » said Carolyn Martinez-Class, a campaign manager for the Invest in Our New York campaign. « The budget could have generated billions of dollars in sorely needed new public funds by raising taxes on New York’s wealthiest residents and corporations and investing those dollars directly into our communities – a move that poll after poll shows is widely popular with New York residents, regardless of political affiliation. » Lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have agreed to a $229 billion budget that will include a handful of tax increases: Taxes on cigarettes will increase by $1 per pack and a « modest » increase in a mobility tax will go toward funding mass transit in the New York City area.  But broad-based tax increases, especially on upper income earners, never seemed to gain much attention in the negotiations even as Democratic lawmakers called for higher tax rates on those who make $5 million and above. New York closed out the fiscal year in April with a budget surplus estimated to be at more than $8 billion. A tax hike this year on wealthy New Yorkers would be the second tax hike in three years.  Fiscal watchdogs and Republican lawmakers had opposed tax increases as well, calling them unnecessary and potentially counterproductive.  « You know the New York motto is Excelsior, right? It means ‘ever upward.’ I guess this means under one party rule, that means our taxes are going ever upward, » Republican Assemblyman Robert Smullen said last month.