BOB CONNER, Schenectady Daily Gazette
Assembly Republicans proposed $2.6 billion in annual tax relief Monday on New York’s “Tax Freedom Day,” meaning the date when the average person has earned enough to pay his taxes for the year.
The Republican plan is a repackaging of previously introduced legislation. It calls for a 4 percent cap on school property tax increases, a state takeover of local Medicaid costs, a “summertime holiday” from gas taxes, and expanded incometax credits for child care and dependents, along with a new $1,000 personal exemption.
“We need tax relief, “said Rotterdam resident Lorie Ruth at a news conference in the Parlor of the Assembly. “If we don’t get it,” she continued, “I don’t know that people are going to be able to stay.”
Ruth said she was referring to her teenage daughter, and wants her to be able to find work in this state when she graduates from college. And Ruth said she also needs tax relief so she can pay for those college costs.
Assemblyman Peter Lopez, R-Schoharie, said, “People are struggling,” and so are the businesses that employ them.
Asked how he proposed to make up for the lost revenue, given the state’s projected budget deficits, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said he supports Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to make future cuts in the state budget. He declined to cite specific examples, saying he expects to be discussing them with Paterson and other state leaders after the governor has consulted with the heads of state agencies. Tedisco said the proposed tax cuts could be phased in, to reduce the immediate hit on the budget.
Paterson had talked of cutting up to 10 percent from next year’s state budget, but his spokesman later said he is not in fact going to propose that severe a cut. Tedisco, however, sounded ready to cut 10 percent.
In response to a question about energy policy, Tedisco drew distinctions between Assembly Republicans and Democrats, saying he supports clean coal and nuclear power, and favors passage of a bill making it easier to site power plants. He also took a shot at Paul Tonko, the former head of the Assembly Energy Committee and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, who is preparing to run for Congress to succeed U.S. Rep. Michael Mc-Nulty, D-Green Island.
Tedisco said that if Tonko “does for the federal government what he did for New York state, it’ll cost you $5 for a pound of air in a bicycle tire soon.”
