The House of Representatives just passed President Obama's stimulus bill by a vote of 244 to 188.

Governor Should Spend Federal Funds on Education, Health Care, Other Services House of Representatives Vote Expected Today

Click here to down this release in PDF format

Albany – A host of New York State organizations led by Citizen Action of New York today called on New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to join with President Obama to fight for a “stimulus for the rest of us:” a bill that provides priority funding to working families, and to states and localities for urgent needs like education and health care. The group also urged Governor Paterson to use the new federal dollars to protect state services – not as an excuse to avoid fair share tax reform to increase state revenues.

“We need our Senators to join with President Obama to fight for a stimulus for the rest of us: average working families,” said Bob Cohen, Citizen Action of New York Policy Director. “The nation is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic recovery bill should be targeted to help families in New York and throughout the nation that are facing job losses, foreclosures, excessive credit card debt, bankruptcies and loss of their health insurance. What’s worse, New York State faces a serious budget deficit this year that will result in serious cuts in programs like education and health care unless we get a significant amount of new federal aid.”

Budget Fact Check - from the Working Families Party

So while President Obama is fighting to save our economy through a massive stimulus package, McMahon is intent on pulling New York in the opposite direction, and straight off an economic cliff.  And he isn't going to let any "facts" get in the way. 

Let's take it from the top. Like McMahon said last week, 41% of New York's income tax revenue comes from the richest 1% of taxpayers. Seems like a lot, until you consider just how rich they are.  That same 1% earns more than two and a half times the total income of the bottom 50% of New Yorkers. (1) In fact, New York has the widest income gap between the rich and the middle class of any state in the nation (2). 

Last week, we celebrated an historic electoral victory with President Obama. This week, we must join with him to fight for our first legislative victory!

Later this week, Congress will vote on President Obama's first legislative priority - an over $800 billion economic stimulus bill.

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand must hear our voices loud and clear - they need to fight with President Obama to ensure we get a stimulus that will help counteract the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

We must also call on Governor Paterson to use these new federal dollars to protect state services - not as an excuse to avoid fair share tax reform to increase state revenues.

That's why we'll be rallying this Wednesday to call for a "stimulus for the rest of us!"

Rallies to be held in Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, and Long Island.

Albany
Wednesday, January 28th
1:00 pm
LCA Room (Room 130)
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY
Click here to RSVP

Buffalo
Wednesday, January 28th
12:30 pm
In Front of the Federal Office Building
130 S. Elmwood Street
Buffalo, NY 14202
Click here to RSVP

Binghamton
Wednesday, January 28th
11:00 am
In front of Merrill Lynch
95 Court Street
Binghamton, NY
Click here to RSVP

Long Island
Wednesday, January 28th
11:00am
Nassau County Supreme Court Building Media Room
100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola

By DANNY HAKIM

Click here to see the original article in the New York Times.

ALBANY — Warning to rich New Yorkers: The tax man might be digging deeper into your pockets in the years ahead.

There is a growing sense in the capital that legislators are likely to turn to an income tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help close the state’s $15 billion deficit, now that Democrats control the Senate, the Assembly and the governor’s office.

The Assembly, where Democrats have an overwhelming majority, has long supported increasing taxes on the wealthy, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, reiterated this month that there continued to be strong backing for the measure among his colleagues.

Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, did not propose any income tax increases in his budget proposal, but acknowledged in last month that “taxing the wealthy is probably going to be part of the solution if the deficit gets any worse, and all indications are that it probably will.”

That could leave the matter in the hands of the Senate, where Democrats won a narrow majority in November. Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, said that he planned to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would increase taxes on the rich, and that he expected his colleagues to have an active debate about the issue.

“There are a lot of us who feel that for the last 30 years we’ve been shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to middle-class families,” Mr. Schneiderman said on Tuesday. “Our conference is operating through consultation and discussion, and I expect we’ll be talking about restoring some additional tax brackets for upper-income New Yorkers as well as a lot of other options.”

On Friday, the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees announced the schedule for Joint Legislative Hearings on the 2009-10 Executive Budget.

From the release:

Each of the hearings on the schedule will facilitate the legislative review of the budget proposals made by the Governor. Each of the hearings will focus on a specific programmatic area of the budget. These hearings are the first step in gathering information from the public.

Hearings on programmatic areas of the budget will begin on January 13, 2009 and continue in accordance with the schedule through February 4, 2009. The respective State Agency or Department heads will lead off testimony each day, followed by interested members of the public. Those wishing to address the Committees are asked to limit their discussion to the programmatic topic area of the budget under consideration at the hearing scheduled for that day and to limit their comments to no more than ten minutes.

Persons wishing to testify should contact the appropriate contact person listed on the schedule no later than the close of business two days prior to the respective hearing. An effort will be made to schedule those who respond in a timely manner earlier in the day. Forty copies of your testimony should be presented at the registration desk at each respective hearing.

See the schedule by clicking "read more," or in our budget calendar in the sidebars.

I just watched the Governor’s first State of the State address. He talked eloquently about the burden that many New Yorkers are feeling in the face of our economic problems, but he is missing the simplest solution to putting our state’s economy back on track: increasing taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.

In recent years, tax cuts for New York’s richest have led to the state losing over $17 billion a year in revenue.

With our state facing a $15 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year, it’s critical that we bring some common sense back to the tax code: let’s pass Fair Share Tax Reform.

Fair Share Tax Reform is simple. If you earn more than $250,000 a year, then you’ll pay a little more in taxes. This could earn the state over $5 billion in additional revenue!

Click here to send the Governor and the State Legislature a message. Tell them that they must share the sacrifice among all New Yorkers – not balance the budget on the backs of working families.

We have a real financial problem in New York. No one is disputing the gravity of the situation or the importance of fixing our economy. But cutting critical services – those services that New Yorkers depend on the most – is not the answer.

Cutting state aid for our kids’ education, financially strapped cities, public libraries, and community colleges can only make our economic problems worse and grow the burden that the poor, the middle class, and communities of color are already bearing.

Speak out against the regressive tax policies of the past few years. Send a message to the Governor and your legislators telling them that we need to protect critical government services. Click here to send your message now!

Thanks!

Karen Scharff
Executive Director
Citizen Action of New York

Click here to download a PDF of this news release.

Albany, NY - Citizen Action of New York said today that Governor David Paterson’s State-of-the-State address acknowledged the pain many New Yorkers are facing in the economic crisis, but failed the test of leadership by not proposing a tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers. Such a tax would reduce cuts to education, health care and other critical services New Yorkers depend on.

“Low and middle income New Yorkers are reeling from national and state policies that have led to mortgage foreclosures, job losses, and health care premium increases, said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “Governor Paterson says we all should share the pain, but his solution will make the problems worse by cutting education, aid to cities and other critical programs.”

“We support the Governor’s call today for President-Elect Obama and the Congress to pass a federal economic stimulus package to help the states, but this shouldn’t substitute for state action to stimulate New York’s economy. The President-elect has made clear that in tough economic times, the best thing for families is for government to invest in education, health care and jobs. We urge the Governor and the Legislature to show the same kind of leadership by asking the wealthy who benefited from the last economic boom to contribute, rather than balancing the budget on the backs of schoolchildren, urban residents and others who depend on state services,” said Scharff.

Scharff said that numerous cuts proposed by the Governor in his budget, including to pre-K through grade 12 education aid, aid for community colleges, public library funding, and revenue sharing will have serious detrimental effects on the most vulnerable New Yorkers and impede the state’s ability to recover from the recession. She called for passage of Fair Share Tax Reform, which would increase taxes on those making over $250,000 per year.

“It is clearly unfair that nurses supporting a family making $40,000 per year pay the same tax rate as law firm partners making $4,000,000 per year,” said Scharff. “We need to restore basic fairness to the tax code, while making sure that the most critical services New Yorkers depend on are protected.”

“No one can deny the budget deficit is real. However, the underlying problem is not increased spending on education and health care, but tax policies of the last two decades that have reduced the share of taxes contributed by the wealthy, and provided loopholes to allow large corporations to avoid their fair share of taxes,” added Scharff. “The issue is whether we should address the deficit by asking the wealthiest New Yorkers to contribute a little bit more, or make cuts that have a disproportionate impact on the poor, communities of color and the middle class.”

“We strongly support the Governor’s call for Rockefeller Drug reform that can reduce inequity in our criminal system, and also save the state money,” said Scharff.

Citizen Action of New York is a statewide organization that organizes for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice; it maintains a new web page designed to involve the public in the fight for a fair budget: www.fightthecuts.org. The Fair Share Tax Reform proposal is outlined on this web page. Citizen Action is urging its supporters to contact the Legislature to pass Fair Share Tax Reform.

Click here to download a PDF (880kb) of the State of the State.

Governor Paterson's State of the State speech will be streamed live over the internet. The speech will start at 1:00pm. You can watch it by clicking the link below (it'll open Windows Media Player on your computer).

http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/asxfiles-live/ca25winlive2138.asx