How to Understand New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Proposed Tax Cuts

Of all the governors across the United States supporting tax cutting proposals, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been one of the most aggressive in promoting his own efforts to cut taxes. Taking his tax cut efforts one step further this election year, Cuomo is now proposing to expend the entirety of his state’s hard-won budget surplus on more than $2 billion in annual tax cuts.

While the term “budget surplus” may make it sound like that there is extra money lying around in Albany, the reality is that the surplus is the product of five consecutive years of austerity budgets and a budget plan that would continue this austerity for years to come. In other words, rather than using the surplus to restore funding to state and local services that have taken a hit over the past years, Cuomo is insisting that the money be used for tax cuts (many permanent) instead.

Unfortunately, tax cutting has become a pattern during Cuomo’s time as governor. In June 2011, Cuomo pushed through a property tax cap, which severely limited the ability of cash-strapped local governments to raise enough revenue to fund basic services. In December of the same year, Cuomo further starved the state of much needed revenue by killing efforts to fully extend a millionaire’s surtax, and instead pushing through a scaled back surcharge that raised half as much revenue as the original. Just last year, Cuomo pushed through a program of unproven and expensive corporate tax breaks, which a CTJ investigation found could actually harm many existing New York companies.

Even worse, to defend his past and newest tax cut proposals, Cuomo has embraced the cringe-worthy rhetoric of anti-tax governors like Kansas Governor Sam Brownback in arguing that ending “high taxes” and enacting corporate tax breaks will make the state more “business-friendly” and help improve New York’s economy. The problem, of course, is that taxes are crucial to funding what really drives economic development: a highly educated workforce, good infrastructure and quality healthcare.

Cuomo’s anti-tax approach is in direct contrast to the newly-elected New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, who ran and won a landslide victory on a campaign platform of addressing growing income inequality primarily through hiking taxes on the rich to provide universal citywide pre-kindergarten classes. De Blasio’s call for higher taxes has proven not only popular in New York City, but also garnered the support of 63% of New York voters statewide. What de Blasio’s election proves is that a significant majority of New Yorkers, unlike Cuomo, are not only willing to forgo tax cuts, but are actually willing to support higher taxes in order to help fund critical public services.

Cuomo’s Tax Proposal a Mixed Bag in Terms of Tax Fairness

While many of Cuomo’s past tax proposals have offered little or nothing to those in need, Cuomo’s new plan does includes a few potentially good ideas as well as few a very bad ones. On the good side of things, Cuomo proposes to substantially expand the state’s property tax circuit breaker and create a renters credit, which could potentially provide a well-targeted income boost to low-income families. While the proposals sound good, their effectiveness will really depend on their details, which are yet to be released.

Regrettably, Cuomo is also proposing a significant cut in the state’s corporate income and estate taxes, which will almost exclusively go to only a very small portion of the richest New Yorkers. Considering the recent series of tax cuts already passed by Cuomo and the years of budget cuts, piling on these additional tax breaks for the rich is simply unconscionable and would make an already unfair tax system (PDF) even worse.