Progressive Caucus Says It’s Time for True Shared Sacrifice
NEW YORK, NY (Feb. 16, 2011) – The Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council believes difficult fiscal times call for genuinely shared sacrifice, and that a balanced approach requires confronting deficits without selling our future short. The City of New York has now made [9] rounds of budget cuts, and we will make more before this process is over. But we are now at the point where further cuts will do long-term harm. A smart shared sacrifice approach means that we also have to raise revenues by taxing the wealthiest households, who do not currently pay their fair share.
As Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg have rightly emphasized, the New York State budget proposed by Governor Cuomo short-changes New York City. It would force the lay-off of thousands of teachers, eliminate vouchers that place homeless families in permanent housing, and close 100 senior centers. Meanwhile, the governor is proposing to give a tax break to millionaires — who already received a giant Christmas bonus from Congressional Republicans — by letting the State’s high-income surcharge expire.
The budget should not be balanced on the backs of the poor – New York’s wealthiest must also pay their fair share. The top 1% of households (average income: $2.3 million) increased their share of total income from 20% in 1990 to a staggering 45% in 2007 … yet they only pay 34% of total city taxes.
At a minimum, we must continue the existing New York State PIT surcharge on high-income households. The surcharge is already in place, generating over $4 billion annually, with no evidence that it has driven wealthy New Yorkers to leave the state. In a time of crisis, it would be unconscionable to cut lifelines for our schools, our seniors, and our most vulnerable while waving bon voyage to billions of dollars in revenue that we are already collecting.
The Progressive Caucus also proposes an additional surcharge on the top 2% of New York households, to reclaim the “Bush era tax cuts” that Congress extended to the wealthy. This would generate an additional $8 billion statewide, allowing us to address severe deficits facing New York City and State while avoiding painful cuts.
The timing is ripe for this approach. Recent polls show that most New Yorkers support extension of the State’s PIT surcharge and federal income taxes are the lowest they’ve been in more than 50 years.
Genuinely shared sacrifice is our best path to shared prosperity. We look forward to working with the Mayor and Speaker to make this a reality.
