For Immediate Release, March 18, 2009
Contact: 631-261-4151
DESPITE TAX CHANGE, GOVERNOR’S BUDGET CUTS OUT LONG
ISLAND
A Legislative
Column by Andrew Raia (R,I,C-East Northport)
The
announcement last week that Governor Paterson will suspend his initial plan to
create or increase $1.3 billion in “nuisance” taxes and fees is welcome news
for middle-class families on Long Island. These tax hikes would have come at
precisely the wrong time for those of us hit hard by a combination of falling
home prices, dwindling incomes, and extra-large debt repayments. High taxes do
two things: they depress consumer spending, and they kill jobs by forcing
businesses out of the state. Paterson’s thoughtless tax plan would have raised
the state’s 7.2 percent unemployment rate to double-digit levels, leading to
more of the home-mortgage defaults which largely contributed to the financial
meltdown in the first place. Still, despite their budget vanishing act, taxes
were not the only headache in store for hard-working Long Islanders.
The
governor’s $121 billion budget still contains billions of dollars in cuts for
services Long Islanders use every day. Governor Paterson’s euphemistically
titled “General Fund Gap Closure Plan” would remove $2.6 billion in Medicaid
reimbursements to hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state; $1.9
billion in vital school aid to improve the quality of learning for students
here in the 9th Assembly District and offset ever-higher property
taxes in our region; and permanently do away with the Middle Class STAR
Program, a property-tax rebate which has benefited countless families by
returning a portion of their tax bill back to them. By losing these investments
in our community, Governor Paterson is telling local towns and cities on Long
Island to close hospitals, fire more teachers or cover the high costs of these
state services entirely on their own. Paterson and his New York City-dominated
cabinet talk a great deal about “shared sacrifice,” but the facts speak for
themselves. Long Island’s tax dollars are sloshed around the state to pay for
community centers upstate, hospital beds in Brooklyn, and
brownfield-development in Buffalo. Yet the state leaves Suffolk and Nassau
counties with a greater share of local costs than any of these areas, despite
Long Islanders’ tax-dollar largesse.
According to
the Assembly Republican Ways and Means Committee, in 2006-07, the most recent
years that data is available, Long Islanders paid over 67 percent for their combined
services, or $6.2 billion. Most of that amount was paid through property and
sales taxes, a dubious revenue source since they can’t be capped under current
law and sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxation available. That
67.39 percent figure is also more than a quarter of the entire population of
upstate New York’s (including Westchester and Rockland) financing. Governor
Paterson’s budget plan would see Long Islanders paying even more for less –
less education, less health care, less tax relief. When middle-class families
are ailing, cuts could mean the difference between keeping one’s home and
joining the army of foreclosure statistics and hard-hit investors we’re all too
familiar with.
School aid
for Long Island would be cut by about 12 percent, or $147,189,000 under
Governor Paterson’s proposal. Every one of Suffolk county’s 65 school districts
would be affected. If enacted, the school-aid reduction on Long Island would be
the largest combined cut of any of New York’s 18 most populous counties. These
cuts would include everything from kindergarten to after-school computer
classes to special education. It would also mean fewer quality teachers attracted
to our districts, and larger class sizes for our children. These are education
cuts Long Islanders just can’t afford.
In the ongoing
budget debates, I have made these and other Long Island priorities known. A
$121 billion budget which requires our taxpayers to fund projects in every far
flung corner of New York State while being subjected to drastic cuts in their
own communities is no way to run a government. Long Islanders are some of the
most innovative, industrious people in the country, producing more than their
share of taxes and prosperity for the Empire State. We ought to honor our
investments in their neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and nursing-home
facilities. Instead, Governor Paterson has short-changed us. It’s time to stand
up to this outrage and fight for our region’s funding. Governor, don’t cut Long
Island out of the budget.
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