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Tax increases included in proposed NYS budget
The Associated Press

    After opposing higher taxes for months as counterproductive, Gov. David Paterson will seek to increase several taxes, from gasoline to clothing, as well as make changes in the income tax that will compel New Yorkers to pay more to fix state government’s fiscal crisis.
    Although Paterson won’t seek to raise the rates of income taxes — a “broad based tax” — he will raise revenue by eliminating legal exemptions in the income tax that he considers “loopholes” and make further adjustments to ensure all taxpayers are paying their fair share, said Paterson budget spokesman Jeffrey Gordon.
    Paterson’s 2009-10 budget proposal to the Legislature is scheduled for Tuesday. That’s a month early, part of Paterson’s effort to get a strong start on cutting spending and increasing revenues to deal with deficits he projects will total $47 billion over three years. The current budget is about $120 billion.
    On Sunday, Paterson’s staff said the budget will include proposals to increase the welfare grant in 2010 while making government subsidized insurance available to more of the working poor, in part by ending some anti-fraud measures. Veterans and their families would also get more help.
    Paterson also reportedly plans to: increase taxes on insurance policies and on non-diet sodas under an “obesity tax”; revive the state sales tax on clothing; and make changes in funding of hospitals and health care providers that could shift more health costs onto individuals and employers.
    Errol Cockfield, spokesman for Paterson, wouldn’t deny the tax proposals first reported in the Albany Times Union Sunday. He said details will be available when the budget proposal is released Tuesday.
    Paterson’s budget proposal is also expected to include his idea for a roughly $600 increase in tuition — about 15 percent — for state residents attending the State University of New York and City University of New York.
    Paterson’s proposal would also reportedly lift the limit on how much state tax can be charged for gasoline. The state’s tax was limited to 8 cents per gallon. A new state tax could be tied to the price of gas, allowing state revenues to rise with the price of gas.
    Much of the reported spending plan is similar to the budget cuts Paterson proposed in November, in a special session of the Legislature, to offset a roughly $2 billion deficit in the current year. The Legislature failed to act then.
    Paterson projects an additional deficit of about $12.5 billion for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins April 1.
    On Sunday, Cockfield and administration officials also announced Paterson’s budget proposal will include: a call for an increase in the welfare grant beginning in 2010, the first since 1990; changes to make more poor New Yorkers eligible for government-subsidized health care; and more services for returning veterans.
    Increasing the welfare grant will cost the state $109 million when fully implemented in 2012-13. It will force counties to pay an additional $76 million by then. The New York State Association of Counties has warned that any mandates on counties will likely force increases in property taxes, already among the highest in the nation.
    There was no immediate comment Sunday from NYSAC.
    When fully implemented, the average family of three on public assistance would be eligible to receive a basic monthly allowance of up to $387, up from the current allowance of $291.
    A typical upstate family receiving welfare would see its grant increase to $685 a month in 2012, up from $589 now; a typical New York City family would see the grant go to $787 in 2012, up from $691 today.
    About 501,000 people receive welfare in New York — more than half of them children.
    Paterson will also propose:
    Making it easier for the poor and working poor to get government health coverage by eliminating some anti-fraud measures, including face-to-face interviews, finger printing and an asset test.
    Allowing 19- and 20-year-olds who do not live with their parents to be eligible to enroll in Family Health Plus, the state health care plan, under the same rules as if they did live with parents.
    Allowing income-eligible public workers to enroll in the state’s Family Health Plus coverage.
    Seeking a federal waiver to allow adults at 200 percent of the federal poverty level — about $20,800 a year — to be eligible for Family Health Plus.
    Taking $282 million in funding for graduate medical education and redirecting it to the state’s poor to cover the care of indigents at teaching hospitals and to increase funds for indigent care in clinics.
    Hiring two workers to help alert returning veterans and their families about government services and to create a mobile outreach service that will travel the state to meet with veterans.
    Increasing funding to food banks, pantries, soup kitchens and shelters.
    Increasing funding in programs to prevent lead poisoning in children, mostly in poor city neighborhoods.
    Creating a $1 million obesity prevention program.
    The obesity tax on non-diet sodas reported by the Times Union would raise $404 million, according to the newspaper report.
    Additional costs for most New Yorkers would include requiring new license plates — to trigger new fees — and acting on a law passed by the Legislature that would require the collection of sales taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian tribes, according to the report.
    Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network applauded Paterson for the proposals, but .................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01200

It's starting to look like the same old legislature of tax and spend. Where are the tax cuts and cap that we were promised? Where's the elimination of pork that was promised? The Gov. and NYS Legislatures have forced many people to leave this state already now they want to force the rest of us to leave because we can't afford to live here. California raised taxes on the rich to balance their budget and the rich moved out of the state and just look at the state of affairs that California is in and NYS will be no different.

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on non-diet sodas under an “obesity tax”

I thought I'd spit my high sugar soda out and almost fell off my 'too small for my a**' chair when I read this one!!! Not really , I'm actually not a big soda drinker, but I couldn't believe what I was reading.

So it appears that none of our legislatures would cut anything anywhere! So instead they will just tax us even more!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

We shouldn't call it an obesity tax.....how about a soda fee.....or a balance our budget because we f!@#%# up fee........how about that one....

I'm no big soda drinker(I prefer the cheap bathtub gin and dark beers myself, room temp BTW), but call the elephant(no pun intended) in the room
what it is......friends in government, friends on wallstreet, friends on mainstreet all giving each other pedicures.......Just ask Mr.Madoff and Mr.Spitzer
and Mr.Clinton and Mr.Rumsfeld and Mr.Blog(Illinois governor),Mr.Hoffa(I'm sure he only goes to one place) who their pedicurists are.......

Someone let me know when the bottom is remotely close........I'll recheck my parachute.......

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Tax? What tax?


First published in print: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Maybe Governor Paterson should just cut to the chase and tax anyone who isn't living a perfect lifestyle.
     
You drink Coke Classic, not Diet Coke? For shame. Pay up.

Driving a car, instead of taking the bus or bicycling? Pay up.

Can't say no to your kids when they need new clothes? Pay up.

You're sick? Pay up.

Insured in case you do get sick? Pay for that, too.

That certainly seems to be Governor Paterson's approach in the new budget he'll unveil today. In his effort to grapple with a $15 billion deficit, the governor has come up with all sorts of new ways to raise money, taxing New Yorkers right and left without directly raising income taxes.

His ideas include taxing non-diet soda — in the name of fighting obesity, mind you — bringing back the sales tax on clothing and ending a cap on gasoline taxes. And, at a time when everyone, including Mr. Paterson and government leaders across the country, laments the rising cost of health care, he plans to increase taxes on hospitals, physician services, and insurance companies. Make no mistake about it: All those fees and taxes will trickle down to ordinary New Yorkers. These are taxes on anyone who ever visits a doctor or hospital, or has health insurance.

It's bad enough that New Yorkers are the most heavily taxed people in the United States. To keep nickel-and-diming them so that virtually anything they do seems to come with a government tax, fee or an innocuous-sounding "assessment" only adds to the state's high-tax aura.

An image, incidentally, that has sent New Yorkers fleeing the Empire State for years. While Mr. Paterson and many lawmakers refuse to consider even a temporary tax increase on more affluent New Yorkers for fear that some will leave the state, New York keeps bleeding population. More than 513,000 people left the state in 2006, according the Census bureau's American Community Survey, while only about 277,000 moved in, a loss of more than a quarter-million people.

Sure, there are reasons other than taxes and fees to head South. Jobs. Warmer weather. But every time New York reaches a little deeper into taxpayers' pockets while trying not to look like it's doing exactly that, it's safe to say another New Yorker gets his or her walking shoes on, whether they're tax free or not. Ideas like an extra tax on non-diet soda surely make the thought of sipping a cool Dr. Pepper — sugar-free or not — on a balmy day in February somewhere else sound that much sweeter.

Here's a thought for lawmakers as they prepare to weigh the new budget: If you and the governor are truly out of.............http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=750901&category=OPINION

Amen to that!

   HomeAutosReal EstateJobsClassifiedsIn PrintBuy TicketsContests LoginRegister
      
        
    
  News Sports Gossip Entertainment NY Local Bronx Brooklyn Queens Your Neighborhood Gas Prices Education Weather Traffic Lottery Death Notices Photos Columnists Opinions Lifestyle Money Latino Video Blogs All Sections All Sections Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts
By KENNETH LOVETT and GLENN BLAIN
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

Updated Tuesday, December 16th 2008, 7:10 PM

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ALBANY - Gov. Paterson released a $121 billion slash-and-burn budget Tuesday morning that slams New Yorkers with 88 new fees and taxes - even on their iPods.

Calling the budget the "greatest economic and fiscal challenge of our lifetimes," Paterson acknowledged his spending plan cuts deep.

But he said the pain must be shared to deal with the fallout from the Wall Street collapse.

The budget will cost the city an estimated $650 million in aid.

But it's the $4 billion in new fees and taxes that are sure to aggravate everyday New Yorkers, who would be paying more for a host of services:

An "iPod tax" that charges state and local sales tax for "digitally delivered entertainment services" - in other words, that new Beyonce song you download.
State sales tax at movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines and cable and satellite TV and radio.
Costlier driving with the repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel, plus and increase in the auto rental tax.
Tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY, $620 and $600 a year respectively.
A 50 cent tax on cigars. The current tax is equal to 37% of the wholesale price, or 34 cents a cigar.
No more sales tax break on clothes and shoes worth $110 or less, except during two weeks a year.
Higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. He would also impose an 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks like soda.
The rich would pay more for luxury items through an additional 5% tax imposed on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000.
In addition, a host of a fees, including those related to motor vehicle licensing and registration, parks and auto insurance, would go up, as would various state-imposed fines.
Even with the cuts, the 2009-10 budget would increase a little more than 1%, the smallest hike since 1996-97.

Paterson said the state is facing a $51 billion shortfall over the next four years at a time when tax revenues are expected to drop 6.6% next year.

"This executive budget begins the difficult process of fundamentally reevaluating both how we manage our government and what the state can afford to spend in a time of plummeting revenues," Paterson wrote in a budget letter.

Paterson is asking lawmakers to pass a $1.7 billion plan by Feb. 1 to reduce the current year's budget deficit.

He then laid out a separate $121 billion spending plan for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins April 1. He is asking the Legislature to adopt the new budget a month early

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CAPITAL REGION
Plan to tax beverages knocked Separate proposal would allow wine sales in grocery stores
BY KATHY BOWEN Gazette Reporter

    Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to increase taxes on non-diet soft drinks, beer and malt beverages would be tough to swallow, according to local beverage retailers.
    And another proposal to allow grocery stores to sell wine has met with opposition from liquor store owners but with enthusiasm by a state business group.
    The governor proposed the new 18 percent higher tax on sugary drinks as among ways to increase funding for a $121.1 billion state budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
    The proposed sales tax on nondiet soft drinks targets obesity and related diseases, with anticipated benefits of new revenues for health care as well as a drop in consumption because of the higher cost.
    James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, said the soft drink proposal is one of a number of beverage tax increases opposed by his group.
    “Everything in a convenience store that’s not nailed down is already taxed, and now the governor wants to raise those taxes,” he said. “He’s proposed a beer tax increase that would more than double the excise tax from [the current] 11 cents a gallon to 24 cents a gallon.”
    Calvin also cited the proposal to recategorize malt liquor beverages that are now taxed the same as beer.
    “The change would mean fl avored malt beverages would be taxed like liquor at 67 cents per liter,” he said.
    NYACS is a private, nonprofi t trade association representing the convenience store industry of New York state with more than 1,500 store locations throughout the state.
    Calvin called the governor’s proposals “extreme.”
    Harold Rockowitz, owner of Uptown Beverage Center in Schenectady and Savemore Discount Beverage in Clifton Park, said Tuesday he thought the soft drink proposal was a “ridiculous” suggestion.
    “I don’t know how they’re going to implement that tax,” he said. “It’s a silly idea. The state should cut frivolous spending to balance their budget.”
    Rockowitz said Pepsi is his company’s top selling non-diet soft drink.
    The so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda alone is expected to raise $404 million for state coffers.
    Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said he will work with Paterson in dealing with the budget crisis but he does not support the increased tax on soft drinks.
    “Where I disagree — as I do with this budget’s tax hikes and imposition of a new ‘soda tax,’ — I will say so and offer substantive alternatives, just as I did in sending the governor a detailed list of 11 areas where he could reduce state spending.”
    The earlier released list included abolishment of commissions that continue to exist even after completing their assigned tasks.
    Meanwhile, a proposal to allow convenience and grocery stores to sell wine was met with enthusiasm from the president of the Business Council of New York State.
    “Allowing supermarkets and grocery stores to sell wine will create new markets for upstate and Long Island wineries and convenience for consumers,” according to Kenneth Adams. “In addition, the proposal will generate new revenue for the cashstrapped state.”
    He noted 35 states already allow wine sales in grocery stores.
    “New York is out of the mainstream under its current law which restricts wine sales to the state’s 2,600 liquor stores compared to 19,000 grocery and convenience stores,” Adams said.
    Judy Evans, who owns Crescent Wine Sellers in Clifton Park, said increasing the number of stores selling wine will only hurt the little merchants.
    “I appreciate that the governor is trying to increase money for the state but this won’t do it,” she said. “When the state allowed liquor stores to be open on Sundays, it didn’t change the number of sales each week, it just gave customers the option of buying on Sunday rather than some other day of the week.”
    She said people don’t generally shop for wine or liquor as they do for bread or milk.
    “Wine and liquor sales are local. People buy on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, they don’t do it every day,” Evans said.
    Stefan Kalogridis, president of the Eastern New York Liquor Stores Association, agreed.
    He said his group is opposed to ...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01102

New York made the headlines on DrudgeReport this morning:

18% tax on soda, iPod tax, movie theater tax, sporting event tax, taxi tax, bus tax, limo tax, cable TV tax, radio tax, clothing tax... NY BUDGET BLOWOUT: 88 NEW FEES, TAXES


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....s_dire_new_york.html

Very informative link MT. The most interesting is to read the "comments" at the end of the article posted by the "average Joe"

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....s_dire_new_york.html

Let's all buy a case of wine(preferably red) and go to the capital and dump it on the steps.........would we be ticketed for open container? or could we
'pay a fee' and register as protesters thereby it being okay to open our bottles and dump them????

Red dye and grape juice in gallon jugs would work just as well....however, it would have to be unsweetened to avoid 'the fee'.........

we are hemmorhaging at a fast rate.......we know what we know..........

131 new taxes and fees! Gov Patterson is finished he should not even seek election. This is the most anti-business budget proposals ever announced. He can find only 500 positions to abolish in State Government?

These tax increases are going to push even more people and businesses out of NYS to other states that are more taxpayer friendly.