Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo re: Personal Income Tax Surcharge

March 9, 2011

Hon. Andrew Cuomo
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

The Queens Civic Congress is a coalition of more than 100 of Queens’s major neighborhood based civic groups that represent thousands of tenants, condo and co-op owners and homeowners living in every part of the Borough. QCC is the only borough-wide group of its kind in New York City.

QCC recognizes that the State is facing almost intractable fiscal challenges and that the 2011 and 2012 budgets must include painful cuts that all New Yorkers will feel. But your cuts in education, health and social services are aimed squarely at the middle class and the working poor who could not possibly duplicate the services they will lose. The cuts in aid to New York City, especially to education, health and social services, would further exacerbate the budget’s deleterious effects on children, teens, the elderly and families.

The Queens Civic Congress has studied the effects of the executive budget on the State, City and on Queens in particular. We have concluded that the 2011-2012 budget must include
Revenue enhancements. QCC urges you to include retention of the Personal Income Tax Surcharge (PITS) in this year’s budget.

When the stakes of letting Wall Street fall were too high, taxpayers bailed out the banks and much of the financial service industry. Lower Manhattan has since largely recovered and companies that risked middle class families’ pensions and mortgages are once again making profits. Meanwhile, middle class families in Queens and across the State continue to struggle. Jobs have not rebounded. Foreclosure signs and abandoned homes deface our streets. Classrooms are packed to the brim. Tuitions at public universities have soared. Services to families and the elderly are being decimated.

44% of New York City’s wealth is in the hands of the top 1% of income earners and yet they only contribute 1/3 of the tax base. Our representatives in Washington, Albany and City Hall are asking us to sacrifice. But our neighbors have been sacrificing for years, and continue to do so through increased prices, wage freezes, MTA hikes and various user taxes and fees. QCC believes the wealthiest New Yorkers should pay their fair share through the extension of New York State’s Personal Income Tax Surcharge.

By implementing this modest revenue generating measure, you can keep the State from failing its citizens.

Sincerely,

Patricia Dolan
President

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

you also can join the other states law suit against obamacare. cutting $500 billion from the medicare benefits of senior citizens is criminal and unconstitutional. each citizen deserves a waiver like obama's favored public and private union members. how can he extend medicare and fund obamacare with the same $500 billion ?

that is "fuzzy "math.

Anonymous said...

The status quo wasn't working. If you don't like the law, propose your own ideas.

By the way, it's not called Obamacare.

Anonymous said...

The State could enforce what could return to it's coffers $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

ENFORCE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LAWAS FROM AVAILING THEMSELFS OF AND IN NYS EDUCATION, MEDICAL, HOUSING, CLOG TRANSPORTATION, SOCIAL AND JOBS AT THE EXPENSE OF NYS LEGAL RESIDENTS. THESE FOLKS PAY NO TAXES, PROPAGATE LIKE RABBITS - SIPHONING OFF WHAT IS NOT LEGALLY THEIRS. START WITH ILLEGALS - ARREST THEM, DEPORT THEM.

Anonymous said...

What are LAWAS?

Anonymous said...

We need to cut spending AND cut taxes, a concept Pat doesn't understand.

Anonymous said...

The Personal Income Tax Surcharge was meant to be temporary. Unfortunately people like Dolan want this to be permanent. They chant the old tired mantra "Tax the rich!"

This seems to be their solution to all governmental financial woes. Instead of focusing on why we spend fortunes on education while students fail and why we spend about 50% of the state revenues on health care.

What Dolan fails to realize is that wanton spending is what has gotten the state in this financial quagmire. Our politicians must learn that the state cannot continue to live beyond its means.

Anonymous said...

"We need to cut spending AND cut taxes, a concept" George H W Bush use to call this voodoo economics. Cutting taxes doesn't work, has never worked and WILL NEVR WORK. Reagan had to raise taxes in second term to fix the disater he started. Remember?

Anonymous said...

Here is a copy of e-mail that was sent by Sean walsh to QCC executive committee members concerning Pat Dolan:

"To: Executive Committee

From: Sean M Walsh

As we protest the Mayor's budget cuts to vital social service programs as well as other budget cuts, it is vital we do not present a political opportunity to city hall with a conflict of personal interest. Therefor, it would be a better course of action for the President Pat Dolan to recluse her self and not to lead the fight or draft public statements or be the public face of QCC opposition to the budget cuts because of her current employment. It is up to others on the EC to take on the role of taking on city hall in this matter. "

Liman said...

I've had it. Between income tax, sales tax, property tax, and everything else, about 50% of my income goes to the government. How much more do you want?

Anonymous said...

So anonymous, what was the reason for posting the letter of the former president of the Congress?

Patrick Sweeney said...

I will resist the urge to be snarky about this. (1) The problem with raising taxes on that top 1 percent, is that they will join so many others that have left New York. From 1998-2008, 1.7 million New Yorkers abandoned the state. (2) The surcharge is not for the "millionaires" but for families with income greater than $200,000 (3) Even if you taxed these folks at 100 percent, there would not be enough money to eliminate New York's deficit.(4) Those earning less than $50,000 (65%) now just pay 3.8% of total income tax collected.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of this organization. is it another front for the slumlords? how come they haven't helped Queens tenants?