When the Tax Foundation ranked New York as having the worst tax system in America, one of the governor’s top aides, Larry Schwartz, not only denounced the findings, he attacked the messenger.
To be precise, Schwartz called the Tax Foundation “a right-wing think tank that has a personal world view and manipulates data to support that world view.” That was back in late 2012.
So count us surprised when we read a recent story in Capital New York that began with this sentence about Schwartz:
“A top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo has been consulting with the Tax Foundation — a Washington-based think tank the administration once denounced — as lawmakers consider a number of tax cuts in the state budget.”
Neither the Tax Foundation nor Schwartz said what the discussions were about. Our guess is the governor’s man was trying to figure out if New York might now rise in the rankings thanks to a state budget that includes tax breaks for businesses and a complicated system the governor describes as a cut in property taxes.
Back when Schwartz was screaming about an anti-New York bias, the Tax Foundation responded this way: “New York scores poorly because it has poorly structured taxes with high rates and narrow bases. The state’s economic success is thanks to a legacy of a once-great business climate and good public services and opportunities. But New York’s taxes are now high and unfriendly. It’s not an ideological statement, it’s a fact.”
We agree. And when that improves, we gather so will the Empire State’s rankings.