ALBANY — Truth be told — not really.
Gov. Cuomo boasted in a press release yesterday that the new state budget “closes a $1.3 billion gap with no new taxes or fees.”
Don’t tell that to utility ratepayers or charitable-minded high earners.
The $141.3 billion budget, which lawmakers finished passing late Thursday night, extends a utility surcharge and limits on high-earner charitable-contribution deductions.
It also increases state surcharges on speeders and motorists caught texting using their cellphones and extends the top income-tax rate for millionaires starting in 2015.
Manhattan Institute senior fellow E.J. McMahon called Cuomo’s no-tax claim “really misleading.”
Cuomo insisted the budget will provide a “net” tax cut for business owners and middle-class families.
That includes a $350 rebate check for each taxpayer with at least one kid and income between $40,000 and $300,000.
But businesses say the budget will cost employers as much as $2 billion through a phased-in hike of the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage to $9 by 2016 and tax extensions.