SHOWTIME: Gov. Cuomo arrives at the Capitol yesterday to announce a $143 billion budget deal that will extend the “millionaires” tax. (AP)
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo declared extending high income tax rates on New York’s top earners would amount to a “new tax.”
That was when he was running in 2010.
Fast-forward to 2013 — as Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a tentative agreement on a $143 billion budget last night that extends the “millionaires” tax a second time — and the governor has come up with new math on how a tax increase is really a tax cut.
When The Post asked if his new stance is hypocritical, he replied, “Some taxes go up, yes, and others go down, and the net is, they go down. That’s why it’s a tax cut.”
Manhattan Institute senior fellow E.J. McMahon didn’t see a straight line in Cuomo’s thought evolution. “He is certainly being inconsistent,” McMahon said.
In fact, the deal to extend the millionaire’s tax three years, through 2017, guarantees tax increases of $2 billion a year in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 state fiscal years with no assurance they’ll be offset by future tax cuts.
The money will be used, in part, to pay for $300 million in tax cuts for small businesses and a $350 million program to issue $350 rebate checks to taxpayers earning up to $300,000 with at least one kid — a giveaway that would take place as Cuomo runs for re-election next year.
Lawmakers and Cuomo also agreed to hike the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour over three years, beginning with a hike to $8 on Jan. 1, to $8.75 a year later and up to $9 by 2016.
Business proponents yesterday cried foul over keeping the top tax rate of 8.82 percent on seven-figure earners. It had been scheduled to expire at the end of 2014 and become 6.85 percent.
“It had been the understanding in the business community that the tax would be allowed to expire once the state had its fiscal house in order,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City.
But Cuomo said some seven-figure earners own or are partners of businesses benefiting from new tax cuts, which include credits for hiring teenage workers and returning military vets.
During his 2010 run, Cuomo insisted that any extension of the so-called “millionaires” tax would, in fact, be a new tax.
“If it doesn’t sunset, it’s a new tax,” Cuomo maintained then.
“I understand the semantics argument,” he added at his inaugural. “I say no new taxes, period.”
Cuomo yesterday tried to shift focus to plans to extend lower tax rates for middle-class families that earn $40,000 to $300,000 and will continue paying 6.45 and 6.65 percent, rather than 6.85 percent.
The new budget, which lawmakers may approve over the weekend, will include more than $300 million in extra school aid for the city, said a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Both Cuomo and Silver said they expect a postbudget deal to decriminalize minor public pot possession resulting from stop- and-frisk arrests.
In the past, as a candidate and when you took office, you said that extending the millionaire’s tax would be a new tax. Do you say that now, and, if not, why not, and is that not hypocritical?
The state of New York charges a number of taxes, the so-called millionaire’s tax, personal income tax, a number of taxes . . . Well, some taxes go up, yes, and others go down, and the net is, they go down. That’s why it’s a tax cut.