The $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by the U.S. Senate erases New York’s projected budget deficit, which may deny the need for hefty tax increases or spending cuts, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer said. Said Monday.
‘Ok. Thanks to @SenSchumer NYS’s budget deficit for this year is… .. Zero, nada, staples, zilch (terms from NY), ”Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro tweeted.
The U.S. bailout plan provides for $ 12.6 billion in government spending on unrestricted aid, a measure advocated by Schumer, the senior senator in New York. The measure overtook the Senate by a 50-49 vote and is expected to clear the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Tuesday and be submitted to President Biden for approval.
Asked if the geyser of pandemic relief eliminates the need for tax increases or spending cuts, Roefaro told The Post: “the statement speaks for itself.”
Roefaro continues: ‘How the NY decides that its budget policy is a matter for the state legislature and the administration. Our task was to provide resources to confront and overcome Covid and its consequences, including the fiscal impact. And we did it completely and completely. ”
Faced with a budget gap of more than a billion and a quiet left flank in the state legislature demanding a huge tax increase on the rich, Cuomo proposed raising the income tax for the richest New Yorkers to ‘ a top rate of 10.86%, compared to 8.82%. New Yorkers pay the combined tax rate of 14.7%, the highest in the country.
But one budget analyst said no tax increases are needed at all now that the geyser of federal stimulus funding is flowing from Washington to New York.
“There is no need for a tax increase,” said EJ McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy, who has long argued that Cuomo has too much fiscal misery in New York.
He said the income tax on the affluent that Cuomo proposed as part of his executive budget plan is no longer necessary.
McMahon said federal aid is so large that it is enough to avoid large tax increases for the next two fiscal years.
Asked by Schumer’s office, Cuomo’s spokesman Freeman Klopott on Sunday referred to the governor’s comments when he said tax increases were still on the table, despite the influx of funeral funding.
‘It’s on the table … It’s the difference between $ 12.5 and $ 15 [billion]. And don’t get me wrong, the $ 12.5 billion is very, very useful. But as you know, because I’ve said it a hundred and fifty times already, I think we needed $ 15 billion, ‘Cuomo said.
‘So we have a gap there, and tax increases are on the table. And they are on the table for the Assembly and the Senate. I do not speak for them, they can speak for themselves, but yes, they are on the table because you have damage to repair. ‘
Cuomo expressed concern about what happens when the one-time administration of federal cash disappears. Expenditure increased during the pandemic despite an economic recession caused by security locks, a drop in tax revenues and massive layoffs.
McMahon said Cuomo is ready to worry about what happens outside the next budget cycle. The governor and legislators of the state must draw up a new budget by 1 April.
But McMahon is also worried that Cuomo – battered and weakened by allegations of sexual harassment and scandal in nursing homes – may concede more to lawmakers’ tax and spending desires than he has done in the past. Prominent Democrats – including Senate Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Yonkers) – are urging him to resign.
‘The question is whether he’s trying to buy friends. “People on the left would like to shake him off,” McMahon said.