ALBANY - The Senate's Republican majority is planning their chamber's special session on Friday to support a cap on property tax growth.
Meanwhile, a poll finds 78 percent of New Yorkers favor a proposal by the Assembly's Democratic majority to raise income taxes on New Yorkers who make $1 million or more a year.
Despite the public posturing that plays well to each majority's voter base, neither measure is expected to be approved in both houses to become law.
That's the kind of “Albany two-step” that billionaire B. Thomas Golisano on Wednesday said he hopes to combat.
He plans to spend at least $5 million on candidates for the state Legislature that focus on issues he sought to enact in his past unsuccessful runs for governor. Golisano said he will contribute to candidates who fill out his questionnaire and support his key issues.
They include improving the upstate economy and reducing the influence of teachers' union and other special interests on state spending and legislation.
He also threatened to oppose in the 2010 elections any candidate he funds this year, but who breaks their promise.
He said he hasn't made any decision on who to support or oppose yet.
“We're doing something a lot of special interests have done in Albany for 100 years,” Golisano said. “What we need are legislators who have the courage and fortitude to say, ‘You can't buy me.”'
Golisano was critical of the Democratic majority in the Assembly as well as the Republican majority in the Senate. He said the Senate GOP hasn't improved the long sagging upstate economy despite claiming it did, while blaming a lack of greater success on the Assembly Democrats.
The fall elections could lead to dueling billionaires, as billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to continue support Senate Republicans who have supported him on city issues. Golisano says he hasn't decided who to support, but he is expected to favor many Senate Democrats seeking to erase the Republicans' one-vote majority this year after decades in control.
On Friday, the Senate's Republican majority will vote for Gov. David Paterson's bill to cap the growth in school and local government property taxes to 4 percent a year, unless school district voters overwhelmingly agree to exceed it. The Senate GOP also plans to approve its own proposal to reduce school district costs for pensions and energy through more state subsidies.
“Enacting a property tax cap is a good starting point, but it is only one piece of the puzzle,” said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican.
But even with the Senate's support Paterson's proposal to cap school taxes to a growth of 4 percent a year, or 20 percent above inflation, whichever is less, appears unlikely to become law.
The Assembly's Democrats prefer a “circuit breaker,” which would further subsidize property taxes for middle class and poorer New Yorkers based on income. The powerful New York State United Teachers union also opposed the cap, saying it would unfairly limit local taxes used to help students and lower class sizes by hiring more teachers.
NYSUT ran a TV and radio ad campaign this summer opposing Paterson's tax cap. A July Siena College poll found 75 percent of New Yorkers supported a circuit breaker, even more than those who supported a cap. A June poll found 72 percent of New Yorkers supported Paterson's cap of the nation's highest property taxes.
Paterson, however, is still pushing for a tax cap. He has called the Legislature back to Albany on Aug. 19 for an emergency economic session to consider ways to cut spending by $600 million this year. He said that is needed to head off a growing deficit. In July, he cut $650 million from the executive branch to fill the first budget gap. The next cuts will harder, and could target school aid and other funding from popular programs on which legislators run re-election campaigns.
Among them is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's idea of a higher income tax on earnings that exceed $1 million.
Wednesday's Quinnipiac University poll found 78 percent of New York voters support the millionaire's tax, while 56 percent prefer that the Legislature cut spending, rather than raise taxes to meet the state's fiscal crisis. Paterson said a growing deficit is now projected to be $26.2 billion over the next three years. The poll interviewed 1,409 voters last Thursday through Monday. It's margin of error is about 3 percentage points.
On the Net
http://www.quinnipiac.edu
Despite the public posturing that plays well to each majority's voter base, neither measure is expected to be approved in both houses to become law.
That's the kind of “Albany two-step” that billionaire B. Thomas Golisano on Wednesday said he hopes to combat.
He plans to spend at least $5 million on candidates for the state Legislature that focus on issues he sought to enact in his past unsuccessful runs for governor. Golisano said he will contribute to candidates who fill out his questionnaire and support his key issues.
They include improving the upstate economy and reducing the influence of teachers' union and other special interests on state spending and legislation.
He also threatened to oppose in the 2010 elections any candidate he funds this year, but who breaks their promise.
He said he hasn't made any decision on who to support or oppose yet.
“We're doing something a lot of special interests have done in Albany for 100 years,” Golisano said. “What we need are legislators who have the courage and fortitude to say, ‘You can't buy me.”'
Golisano was critical of the Democratic majority in the Assembly as well as the Republican majority in the Senate. He said the Senate GOP hasn't improved the long sagging upstate economy despite claiming it did, while blaming a lack of greater success on the Assembly Democrats.
The fall elections could lead to dueling billionaires, as billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to continue support Senate Republicans who have supported him on city issues. Golisano says he hasn't decided who to support, but he is expected to favor many Senate Democrats seeking to erase the Republicans' one-vote majority this year after decades in control.
On Friday, the Senate's Republican majority will vote for Gov. David Paterson's bill to cap the growth in school and local government property taxes to 4 percent a year, unless school district voters overwhelmingly agree to exceed it. The Senate GOP also plans to approve its own proposal to reduce school district costs for pensions and energy through more state subsidies.
“Enacting a property tax cap is a good starting point, but it is only one piece of the puzzle,” said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican.
But even with the Senate's support Paterson's proposal to cap school taxes to a growth of 4 percent a year, or 20 percent above inflation, whichever is less, appears unlikely to become law.
The Assembly's Democrats prefer a “circuit breaker,” which would further subsidize property taxes for middle class and poorer New Yorkers based on income. The powerful New York State United Teachers union also opposed the cap, saying it would unfairly limit local taxes used to help students and lower class sizes by hiring more teachers.
NYSUT ran a TV and radio ad campaign this summer opposing Paterson's tax cap. A July Siena College poll found 75 percent of New Yorkers supported a circuit breaker, even more than those who supported a cap. A June poll found 72 percent of New Yorkers supported Paterson's cap of the nation's highest property taxes.
Paterson, however, is still pushing for a tax cap. He has called the Legislature back to Albany on Aug. 19 for an emergency economic session to consider ways to cut spending by $600 million this year. He said that is needed to head off a growing deficit. In July, he cut $650 million from the executive branch to fill the first budget gap. The next cuts will harder, and could target school aid and other funding from popular programs on which legislators run re-election campaigns.
Among them is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's idea of a higher income tax on earnings that exceed $1 million.
Wednesday's Quinnipiac University poll found 78 percent of New York voters support the millionaire's tax, while 56 percent prefer that the Legislature cut spending, rather than raise taxes to meet the state's fiscal crisis. Paterson said a growing deficit is now projected to be $26.2 billion over the next three years. The poll interviewed 1,409 voters last Thursday through Monday. It's margin of error is about 3 percentage points.
On the Net
http://www.quinnipiac.edu
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