NYS ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE BILL TO CONTINUE TAX FOR THE WEALTHY

Photo:  Ove Overmyer

Albany, N.Y.--  As promised, Assembly Democrats announced legislation that would continue the higher income-tax bracket for millionaires through the calendar year 2012-- after they were unsuccessful in getting the continuation in the state budget battle back in March.

The bill (A.7802) was introduced yesterday by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, on the same day that voters headed to the polls to vote on their local school budgets. The measure faces little chance of passage into law, however. Senate Republicans have ruled out keeping the tax, as has Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  Theatrics aside, the bill may be a bargaining chip for other decisions to be made before this legislative session is over in June.

The legislation would prevent the lowering of the current tax bracket for the wealthy, which is set to expire at year’s end. The bill would keep the tax for just millionaires; the current law, adopted in 2009, applied to people who make more than $250,000 a year. It would require at least 30 percent of the revenue-- which is roughly $4 billion a year-- to go to fund schools, which were cut by $1.5 billion in this year’s budget.

“Quite simply, this is a moral imperative. We should not give a special handout to multi-millionaires and billionaires while our children’s educational are in jeopardy,” Silver said in a statement.

“This legislation not only ensures that millionaires and multi-millionaires remain in their current tax bracket until 2013, it also makes certain that a large portion of their contribution goes directly to our schools.”

The bill would keep the current top tax rate of 8.97 percent through 2012.

Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, Rockland County, last week introduced Sen. John Bonacic’s bill that would keep the millionaire’s tax permanently and use some of the revenue to fund a program that would tie property taxes to household income, called the circuit breaker.