ALBANY — State Senate GOP leader John Flanagan said Thursday that a poll showing 41 percent of New York City residents might be forced to flee because of high costs should be a “wake up” call to Democrats planning to increase state spending.
“They view hardworking taxpayers as their own personal ATMs — always there for their convenience in case they need a few more dollars to spend,” he said in a statement.
Flanagan pointed to proposals to increases taxes on everything from internet purchases to prescription drugs.
The state budget is due on April 1.
“It’s shades of 2009 and 2010,” he said of the last time Democrats celebrated one-party rule in New York, “when Senate Democrats increased taxes 124 different times totaling $14 Billion to fuel an irresponsible spending binge that nearly bankrupted our state.”
Democrats fired back that Flanagan was in no position to talk about higher taxes.
“This is pretty ironic,” said Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy. “Coming from the former Senate Leader that presided over years of tax and fee increases and only got his role because of the support of federally-convicted Dean Skelos.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed the Trump administration for the state’s fiscal problems.
“We didn’t do it to ourselves,” he said, charging that President Trump and Washington Republicans unfairly penalized New York with a federal tax code that caps state and local deductions at $10,000.
“What they did was they increased our taxes and they subsided Florida with our tax increase,” Cuomo said.
A day earlier, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said New York’s policies is what put it in a jam, not the Trump administration.
“If you cut taxes and make state and local government efficient, maybe you can compete with Florida again,” Scott said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday.
A Quinnipiac University poll on Wednesday showed 41 percent of New York City residents — and 35 percent of state residents — are so concerned about high costs that they might have to leave within five years.