ALBANY - Lobbyists are making a last-minute push for higher taxes on millionaires and smokers as the budget deadline approaches in less than a week.

With a $4.6 billion budget deficit looming, two lobbying campaigns claim to have partial solutions to the state's financial burdens as lawmakers push to meet the April 1 deadline for a new budget.

New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a coalition including the state's large public employee unions, is paying more than $100,000 for radio advertisements that argue for a tax increase for people with incomes of $1 million or more because “the wealthiest New Yorkers just aren't paying their fair share.” The ad says the only alternative would be cutting funding for hospitals, schools and colleges.

“Taxing millionaires or cutting schools and health care - that's an easy choice,” the ad says.

The heavy-handed tactic is common this time of year as lawmakers are under close scrutiny for how they craft the roughly $124 billion budget and whether they will get it done on time. Politicians and lobbyists like to complain about budget cuts, but they are referring to cuts in budget growth, rather than spending less than last year.

Frank Mauro, of the Fiscal Policy Institute, one of the groups in the coalition supporting the tax increase, said New York has to figure out what is the least harmful way to balance the budget in a recession.

But opponents of the tax increase say the radio ads go too far.

“It crosses the boundary into the ridiculous,” said E.J. McMahon, of the Empire Center for New York State Policy. “It creates this specter of budget cuts and service cuts that just isn't there.

The Empire Center, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute, has issued a response to the coalition's ad, rejecting its arguments for increasing taxes.

McMahon advocates minimizing growth in government spending. For instance, the center argues that the executive budget would increase school aid by $1.5 billion, or 7 percent, on top of last year's increase.

Gov. David Paterson proposed cutting $800 million from the executive budget offered earlier this year by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer before he resigned in disgrace, but it would still result in total state spending growth of 3.7 percent.

The millionaire tax has the support of the Assembly, but Paterson has said it's not the right time to raise taxes and Senate Republicans have rejected the idea entirely.

Another group pushing for a tax increase is the Center for a Tobacco Free New York. The coalition spent $200,000 on radio advertisements and print ads that support doubling the $1.50 cigarette tax for a total $3 per-pack tax.

The ad starts with a song reminiscent of superhero cartoon themes, and a deep voice proclaiming “Most New York leaders can't bend steel with their bare hands. None can leap tall buildings with a single bound. But all can save lives with a single vote to increase the cigarette tax.”

The ad argues that the increase would raise more than $480 million and prevent more than 290,000 children and teenagers from starting smoking. Anti-smoking groups have long sought to increase the cost of buying cigarettes to deter people from the habit.

“The state can generate substantial new revenue and they'll also see a substantial decrease in health costs,” said Jennifer Cucurullo, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.

“This is just a money grab by the antismoking crowd,” said Audrey Silk, founder of the New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. “They're just shameless, and on top of it all, it creates nothing more than an incentive for the lucrative black market to step in.”

The coalition is buying ads in all major daily newspapers outside of New York City.

On the Net

www.abetterchoiceforny.org

http://www.empirecenter.org/2008/03/TaxHikeClaimFact.cfm

http://www.budget.state.ny.us/