~ A new college tuition deduction/credit
~ A sales tax exemption for utility transmission and distribution
~ A sales tax exemption on Web hosting and HDTV equipment
~ A reduction in taxes on bank mutual fund companies
~ A cut in the marriage penalty
~ A group of miscellaneous sales tax exemptions
~ School Tax Relief, or STAR, a rebate for a portion of property taxes paid
~ Another STAR program, this one applied to income taxes Source: NYC Independent Budget Office
Heh - with taxes crossed off, the Rudy supporters are truly one-issue folks now: talking a big game about the War on Terror.
I read some of the prospectuses filed with the SEC by the bond brokers during Giuliani’s reign. He borrowed his way through his tenure (surprise, surprise). When he hit the constitutional limit on borrowing, they set up two new “Authorities” that issued more debt—that didn’t count against the city’s debt limit formula. Something like 18-20% of city revenue now goes to debt service alone. While he says he reduced taxes, the personal income tax surcharge that was due to expire when he took office was extended up until his last year in office, then “restructured” to expire on a declining scale over future years—after he left office (the surcharge was about 1/2 billion a year which dwarfed the other tax decreases). Yet other tax decreases were put into law but not implemented until after he left office. He says he left the state with a big surplus but, when he left, the projected multi-billion dollar gaps between revenue and spending were double what they were when he took office.