A Better Choice Budget for New York: 10 good reasons

Here are 10 reasons to come out to our “A Better Choice Budget for New York” forum with New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness Executive Director Ron Deutsch on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 5:30 p.m., at Rhinebeck Town Hall, 80 East Market St.1. The Better Choice Budget Coalition sensibly calls for a return to the full millionaires tax and closing $1 billion worth of corporate tax loopholes annually.Coalition members include the NYS Alliance for Retired Americans; NYS Coalition for the Aging; Statewide Senior Action Council of NYS; NYS Library Association; Interfaith Alliance of NYS; Interfaith Impact of NYS; Alliance for Quality Education; Environmental Advocates of NY; NYS American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); Civil Service Employees Association Inc. (CSEA); New York State United Teachers (NYSUT); Public Employees Federation (PEF); American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness; NYS Community Action Association; New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness; Community Voices Heard; Fiscal Policy Institute; and the Hunger Action Network of NYS.2. Fact: New York’s millionaires tax used to bring in $4.6 billion in revenue annually. Because of December’s tax deal, it now only brings in $1.9 billion in revenue — creating a $2.7 billion hole in the state budget (www.FiscalPolicy.org).3. Meanwhile, over the last two years alone $2.7 billion has been cut from state aid to schools. Hyde Park Elementary School may close, LaGrange and Smith elementary schools already closed, and the city of Poughkeepsie has cut back to half-day kindergarten — and Cuomo has proposed to add only $805 million in state aid to schools this year, while proposing to cut $99 million from early childhood intervention services over the next five years.4. Sixty-three percent of school districts increased their class size because of these budget cuts; 36 percent cut summer schools; 22 percent cut art classes; 14 percent cut music classes; and 17 percent cut honors or advanced placement courses (www.AQENY.org).5. The richest 1 percent of state households increased their share of all income statewide from 10 percent in 1980 to 35 percent in 2007, and the 67 billionaires who call New York home have a combined net worth of more than $234.9 billion (www.99PercentNY.org).6. Recent Marist/YNN, Siena, Quinnipiac and Hart research polls all show the vast majority of New Yorkers strongly supported maintaining the full millionaires tax.7. Because of $36 million cut in state funding last year for the state’s Elderly Prescription Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program, starting in January, EPIC participants have had to pay between $3 and $20 for a prescription, depending on the overall cost of the medication. Now New York doesn’t subsidize participants until they reach the coverage gap of $2,930, also known as the “doughnut hole.” Until that time, seniors pay 25 percent of the cost of the drug.8. SUNY funding has been cut by $1.4 billion over the last four years — more than $300 million last year alone. SUNY’s total operating budget has already been reduced by over 35 percent during the last five years (www.SaveOurSUNY.org).9. As Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has recently stated, “defined contribution plans are not adequate for retirement security for public or private workers. Study after study has shown that defined benefit plans cost less in the long run than 401k style plans and perform better.”More workers should have defined-benefit pensions. We shouldn’t kill what’s left of the middle class by attacking public employee pensions.10. Finally, large multinational corporations that do business in the state should pay taxes. Some of the worst corporate tax dodgers are Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Travelers Insurance, Verizon and Goldman Sachs. We need to level the playing field so that small businesses are not left holding the bag while big businesses are allowed to avail themselves of billions of dollars in corporate tax subsidies and loopholes. Loopholes should be closed for corporate tax evaders, real estate partnership abuses should end and New York needs to “expand the nonresident personal income tax to include income received from hedge fund management fees,” as Gov. Paterson included in his 2010 executive budget proposal.For more information on the forum, visit www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org and call Gov. Cuomo and state legislators at 877-255-9417.Joel Tyner is a Dutchess County legislator (D-Clinton/Rhinebeck). See www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com; www.JoelforCongress.org; call 845-444-0599 to get involved.