Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday defiantly vowed to push ahead with plans to raise the state’s already sky-high income tax on the wealthy, even as fellow Democrat Gov. Spitzer continued to insist the hike would harm New York’s economy.
“I’ve spoken to the governor about it,” said Silver, after appearing with Spitzer at a Manhattan press conference announcing state grants to hard-pressed businesses in his lower Manhattan district that continue to struggle seven years after the 9/11 terror attack.
“It becomes a question of priorities,” said Silver.
“We need an affordable-housing program and we have to have the ability to pay for it.
“We need an effective mass-transit plan – right now we have no ability to pay for it,” Silver continued.
Earlier this week, Silver unveiled a plan to raise $1.5 billion a year from those earning $1 million or more annually, only to have it quickly shot down by Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer).
Other Democrats pushed an even more ambitious plan to hike income taxes on those earning more than $250,000.
Silver insisted his proposal would affect only 70,000 New York taxpayers, 40 percent of whom he said don’t even live in the state.
But Spitzer, who has proposed a record-high, $124 billion state budget that raises spending by twice the rate of inflation, said Silver’s plan would undermine efforts to make New York more attractive to business.
Bruno said taxes shouldn’t be raised when the national economy is headed toward a recession.
Silver, meanwhile, acknowledged a report in yesterday’s Post in which fiscal experts said Assembly Democrats should consider reducing state spending by billions of dollars – through workforce reductions, a spending freeze and even a cut in the Legislature’s budget – rather than adopt tax increases that could drive some of New York’s wealthiest individuals from the state.
“However The Post or anybody else would look at it, we have a mass-transit system that is severely underfunded and we propose a way [higher taxes] to fund that underfunded plan,” said Silver.
Meanwhile, Spitzer announced that the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.’s small firm assistance program would provide $5 million to street-level businesses harmed by redevelopment construction in the Ground Zero area.
“Small businesses are the backbone of Lower Manhattan and those that chose to remain here during the toughest of times deserve our assistance,” he said.