Did Cuomo raise taxes on the rich?

[ProSense]

UPDATE 1-NY Gov raises taxes on rich, gives middle-class cuts

Dec 6 (Reuters) - New York's millionaires will pay higher taxes while 4.4 million middle-class and upper-income New Yorkers will get tax cuts under a reform plan the governor and legislature unveiled on Tuesday.

The new top income tax rate for those who earn more than $2 million will rise to 8.82 percent. Without the agreement, this rate would have fallen to 6.85 percent from the current top rate of 8.97 percent because a surcharge expires this year.

The pact, which still must be approved by both houses of the legislature, cuts the current rate for those who earn $40,000 to $150,000 a year to 6.45 percent from 6.85 percent.

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Those who earn $150,000 to $300,000 will pay a 6.65 percent rate, down from 6.85 percent. Those whose yearly incomes run from $300,000 to $2 million will all pay 6.85 percent, down from the current range of 7.85 percent to 8.97 percent.

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The current top tax rates range from 7.85 percent to 8.97 percent for incomes from $300,000 and up. Those with incomes of $2 million are taxed at the highest rate.

Under this agreement, incomes from $300,000 to $2 million will see their tax rates drop 6.85 percent (a 1 percent to 2.1 percent drop). Those with incomes will see their rates drop from 8.97 to 8.62 (.35 percent drop), but that doesn't stop the media from selling this across-the-board tax cut as a tax increase on the wealthy.

Here's the NYT headline: Cuomo Strikes Deal to Raise Taxes on the Wealthiest

The agreement also doesn't make up the budget shortfall, raising only $1.9 billion when $3.5 billion is need.

[flpoljunkie]

1. Did the NYT write a false and misleading headline?

The answer is yes.

[ProSense]

2. It's

proof that OWS and the discussion about inequality is resonating, but it also shows the extent to which the media will go to protect the wealthy.

Cuomo was against the millionaire's tax and wanted it to expire. Making the tax cuts across the board allows him to claim he raised taxes because those earning more than $2 million because they will pay the most, 8.82 percent, but it's .35 percent lower than the current millionaire's tax.

The bogus part of this is that those with incomes between $1 million and $2 million will be spared the millionaire's tax, getting a huge 2.1 percent tax cut.

Now, what's Cuomo going to cut to make up the additional $1.6 billion of the budget shortfall, especially when the perception is being created that he already taxed the rich?

[flpoljunkie]

7. Yes. That's quite a budget shortfall.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProSense]

4. Hey

"You're just mad at Cuomo because he won't kowtow to Obama on the mortgage meltdown settlement."

...it's not my fault you're impressed with Cuomo's math.

Reuters:

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‘Collapsing” Revenue

Last week, the governor said revenue is “collapsing” amid shrinking Wall Street bonuses and job cuts in the finance industry, which accounted for more than 20 percent of wages paid by businesses in 2010. New York has projected a $3.5 billion deficit in fiscal 2103, which begins April 1, and a $350 million gap this year. It’s one of four states, including California, Missouri and Washington, to report midyear budget deficits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The new tax code would generate $1.9 billion in additional revenue while also cutting taxes for 4.4 million middle-class residents by $690 million, Cuomo said. A 2009 surcharge on those who earn $200,000 or more that’s set to expire Dec. 31 generated about $4 billion a year, according to the Budget Division.

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Last I checked, $1.9 billion is less than $4 billion. It's an across-the-board tax cut...$2.5 billion worth of cuts.

[ProSense]

5. And since you

brought up the mortgage settlement, the sources of the current sleight of hand are fairly obvious.


NYT

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Kathryn S. Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, a network of business leaders, said that Mr. Cuomo was “appropriately changing the terms of debate from the class warfare language of the millionaires’ tax advocates to focus on tax reform that promotes universal fairness.”

“He knows it is possible to raise revenues without inflammatory rhetoric that drives business and wealth out of the state,” Ms. Wylde said. She added that because lawmakers had moved this year “in the direction of showing they could exercise some discipline over spending,” the business community would support a “balanced approach” of spending cuts and new revenues as Mr. Cuomo drew up his next budget.

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The Millionaire’s Tax

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Governor Andrew Cuomo opposes the extension of the millionaire’s tax, actually a tax on individuals who make at least $200,000 and families that make at least $300,000. He thinks it would place New York at a competitive disadvantage with its neighbors.

I respect the governor, but that’s a canard. As Robert Frank explained last February in The Wall Street Journal, the number of millionaires in New York actually increased in 2010 (when the tax was in place): “New York had 381,197 millionaires in 2010, an increase of 35,000 millionaires from 2009.”

In that same article, Mr. Frank quoted Kathryn Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City (which opposed the tax extension), as saying that even if the numbers don’t support the theory that rich people are flocking to other states, there is some anecdotal evidence that they are. “Our evidence is from conversations with lots of high earners and there is an increasing tendency to gravitate to lower-tax places,” she said.

If it’s anecdotal evidence the Partnership wants, here’s what Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also known as the richest man in New York City, said in 2008: “I can only tell you, among my friends, I’ve never heard one person say ‘I’m going to move out of the city because of taxes.’ Not one. Not in all the years I’ve lived here.” (Despite this astute observation, Mr. Bloomberg opposes the tax.)

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Remember that name? That was the person who was alleged to be an Obama ally.

[TheWraith]

6. Kicked and recommended.

It's funny how Cuomo, who openly uses far-right talking points about "class warfare," gains popularity at DU while Obama talking about economic fairness is crapped on as "just pretty words!" (Which is in itself a right-wing meme, but moving on...)