Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Here & There Column 10-8-13

Broad Based Tax Cuts For All

  New Yorkers pay  more per capita in taxes than taxpayers in any other state in the nation.
  Certainly not something we enjoy swallowing or should be proud of and it's time New York's tax and regulatory policies are reformed to reduce the state's overall tax burden.
  It's no secret that New York's tax code is cluttered with credits, deductions and other loopholes driven by short term policy goals and political considerations than by the basic principles of tax fairness, efficiency, simplicity, visibility and competitiveness.
  We here in upstate New York tend to see more of the slow economic growth that is due to the tax burden and over the past 15-years, the state's property tax burden has increased more than 73 percent......two times as much as the rate of inflation and well beyond the national average.
  It's time for New York State to focus more on broad-based tax cuts for all and a better, more balanced mix of targeted and broad-based tax relief is overdue.
  It not a surprising fact that a recent Siena College survey found that consumer confidence in New York is at a 20-month low.
  Bipartisan action in Albany has produced the 2% property tax cap  and the next step must be mandate relief that local leaders are crying for. 
  A comprehensive tax reform agenda for 2014 hopefully should gain bipartisan support and action in our state Legislature.
  New York government has a long and sometimes not so proud track record of talking a good game but not delivering. Many folks just become sick and tired or being taxed to death and pick up and move out to other tax-friendly states.
  We must demand mandate relief and regulatory reform because we have no future as the tax capital of the nation.

                                                             

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