“The detrimental impact is inarguable”
Even more troubling, the governor today appears to have truly lost his way on this focus.
Not Senate Republicans however. Our focus remains squarely focused on making this state more affordable with more opportunities -- and that begins with lower taxes. Last week we approved a comprehensive “Jobs and Opportunity Agenda” that includes legislation I sponsor aimed at reducing New York State’s high tax burden. Specifically this legislation would provide significant new tax savings for small businesses and small farms by expanding the existing Personal Income Tax exemption and reducing the Corporate Franchise Tax business income tax rate from 6.5 percent to 2.5 percent over a two-year period.
Studies continue to highlight New York as the state with the highest tax burden in the nation and, in particular, one that remains a dark cloud over every other effort to improve our business climate. In February, according to USA Today, a report from 24/7 Wall Street found New York State “leading the pack” in a variety of tax categories. In March, a new report from WalletHub ranked New York 48th - third worst - in a comparison of every state in America based upon total state and local tax rates.
Unshackle Upstate had this to say about the Senate’s approval of the Jobs and Opportunity Act, “This relief comes at a critical time. Recent data from the New York State Department of Labor clearly indicate that Upstate employers are struggling to create jobs. With the exception of the New York City area, unemployment is on the rise in every community. The detrimental impact of New York’s harsh business climate – with its high taxes, onerous regulations and costly mandates – is inarguable.”
High taxes remain an unfair and unreasonable burden on individual taxpayers, families, farmers, employers and workers. Even with the tax cuts we have successfully achieved over the past several years – and keep in mind that we have achieved billions of dollars in tax cuts during this time -- we have to keep taking tax relief actions for our small business owners, farmers, manufacturers and others to ensure that they can stay in business and keep creating the jobs that our communities depend on.
Among many provisions, the Senate’s Jobs and Opportunity Agenda includes legislation to:
n allow real property owned by a small business (100 or less employees) to be eligible for the STAR property tax savings program;
n establish the Unfunded Mandate Review Act to protect local governments from unfunded state mandates. Specifically, this legislation requires the state comptroller to conduct a continuing study of unfunded mandates upon any local government, and prepare comparative costs of proposed regulations;
n promote mandate relief and flexibility in tailoring regulatory requirements to the specific needs and capabilities of local governments;
n establish a Small Business Liaison within the state bureaucracy to disseminate important regulatory information, listen to concerns and advocate on behalf of businesses within state agencies;
n prevent “regulatory steamrolling” by curtailing state government’s overutilization of the emergency regulation process to ensure its use only when necessary to protect public health and safety; and
n direct the state education commissioner to develop guidelines for high school guidance counselors to facilitate student awareness and interest in apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and career and technical education opportunities.
There are roughly 20 days remaining in this year’s regular legislative session. The Senate looks forward to using every single one of them to keep pushing the Assembly Democratic leadership and Governor Cuomo to get refocused on these fundamental priorities for Upstate New York.
(Senator O'mara's district includes Steuben County)
