Posted on 10/06/2006 4:40:20 PM PDT by neverdem
FASO RAISES VITAL ISSUE
NEW York voters who accept the in evitability of an Eliot Spitzer governorship risk creating a second inevitability: that the state will continue to limp along hobbled by some of the highest income taxes in the nation. Spitzer's opponent, John Faso, offers at least a faint hope of altering that course.
New York's state and local income taxes rank No. 1 in America, according to the Tax Foundation. The state's top rate, nearly 7 percent, hits couples with gross incomes starting at about $55,000 (with taxable income of $40,000). This rate is among the top quarter nationwide, and it snares a good chunk of a New York family's income: more than $4,000 a year for a family earning just shy of six figures.
High income taxes also punish New York's jobs and tax base by encouraging high-income and aspiring high-income entrepreneurs to start their businesses elsewhere: Why start a new company near Buffalo when you can launch it in Texas or Florida, at an income-tax rate of zero?
Faso recognizes that high income taxes are a serious problem for New York, and he's got a straightforward way to fix it: Cut them.
If elected, Faso would push the Legislature to slash the top income-tax rate by nearly a tenth, from 6.85 to 6.25 percent on families who earn gross incomes starting at just under six figures (with corresponding cuts for single people). He'd cut marginal rates even more dramatically, up to 24 percent, for couples earning in the mid- to high five figures.
Most radically, Faso would eliminate taxes altogether for couples earning under $50,000 and for singles earning under $25,000. He'd also index all tax brackets to inflation - so people don't find themselves in higher tax brackets just because their salaries have kept up...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
A better idea would be to scrap all the corporate and income taxes and go with a single sales tax rate of 10%. They'll get more revenues from tourism.
Cutting taxes works every time it's tried, but that just doesn't register with the Democrats.
(Oct. 4, 2006)
When measured as a percentage of home value, property taxes in nine New York counties were among the nation's top 10 property tax burdens in 2005, according to a new study by the Tax Foundation.
Property taxes in the Upstate counties of Niagara, Monroe, Onondaga, Wayne, Chautauqua, Erie, Schenectady, Cayuga, and Chemung Counties were 2.4 percent or more of the county's median house value in 2005, the study found. In Niagara County, the typical $91,000 home had a tax burden of more than $2500.
The Tax Foundation study analyzed data from the Census Bureau to compare 2005 property tax burdens in the 775 U.S. counties with populations greater than 65,000. The data did not include taxes paid by businesses or renters.
Four of the top 10 total tax burdens in the nation, not adjusted for average property values, also belonged to New York, the Tax Foundation said. The number one burden in the nation, $7,337, belonged to downstate's Westchester County. Rounding out New York's four counties in the top-ten list were Nassau ($7,025), Rockland ($6,527), and Putnam ($6,335).
When property taxes are measured as a percentage of personal income, the same four counties were again in the top ten. In Nassau County, residents' tax bills in 2005 were nearly 8 percent of the average $89,320 that year. Putnam, Suffolk and Westchester County homeowners paid tax bills of more than 7 percent on average incomes of $86,694, $83,915, and $101,581, respectively.
Recent analysis by the Public Policy Institute showed that New York has the nation's fourth-highest per-capita property tax burden at $1,677 -- 54 percent above the national average.
Residents of the southeast and west paid the lowest property tax burden. The lowest tax burden in the nation was paid by residents of Apache County in Arizona. The average property tax burden in 2005 was $176 on the average $71,600 home, or about 0.3 percent of the median income.
The study is available at
www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1888.html.
bump
By the time he's finished, Eliot Spitzer is going to make Mario Cuomo look good.
Wow! - Thats a lot! - BTW, what is a state income tax? :) /s
Spitzer is going to run this state completely into the ground, just in time to launch his presidential bid.
I keep saying that the Governor of NY is merely a ceremonial position like the Brittish monarchy. The true ruler of New York is Sheldon Silver D-Manhattan.
Sptizer will have a short ineymoon with Silver and then Spitzer will have the temetity to actually think that he IS the Governor. Then he'll get hung out to dry just like any other politician ( just ask Idiot Cuomo, and Pataki)
When I read about Republicans hosting fundraisers for Demoncrats in NY State, I know it is over!
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