Tell Your Lawmakers: Stop Albany’s $1B Tax Hike & Insider Giveaways

Some Albany politicians are claiming Congress is raising your taxes. But the new federal tax reform law gives the vast majority of New Yorkers a tax cut. It’s state lawmakers that have made New York a tax hell – and they’re looking to turn up the heat.

If our elected officials are concerned about the taxpayers losing deductions, why are they pushing massive tax and fee increases and even MORE spending on pet projects?

Governor Cuomo’s budget includes $1 billion in new taxes and fees (on top of $1.5 billion in additional taxes New Yorkers will face if Albany doesn’t fix the code). To make matters worse, it also includes billions more in spending at a time when the state faces its largest budget deficit in years.

Tell your state legislator: New Yorkers can’t afford more taxes and Albany insiders don’t need more wasteful spending.

Here are the worst ways Albany is grabbing for more of your money:

$75 million (soon to become $159 million) with an expanded internet sales tax – making online shopping even more expensive for New Yorkers.
$140 million with a 14% Health Insurance Windfall Profit Tax – driving up the cost of health insurance in a state where premiums are already among the highest in the nation.
$500 million with a tax on conversions of health insurers – an unreliable revenue grab targeting the sale of Fidelis, a Catholic Church-affiliated non-profit insurer.
$3 million with a for-hire Vehicle Safety Inspection Fee – targeting certain types of passenger carriers and making it more difficult for them to do business.
$127 million with a tax on opioids – making the cost of buying prescription painkillers more expensive while investing only $18 million in drug & alcohol treatment.

On top of new taxes, Albany is spending BILLIONS more on failed, wasteful initiatives:

Nearly $1 billion more on economic development programs – dumping more tax dollars into the most expensive, least effective effort of its type in the nation. Signature programs have given us glitzy, wasteful TV ads and triggered a huge ongoing corruption trial, but they’ve failed to revive Upstate’s struggling economy.
More spending and new money grabbing schemes for the MTA – throwing even more money at a failed system rife with high costs, mismanagement, and declining service. With a budget of $16 billion and more than $30 billion for capital improvements, the MTA should have more than enough to make the trains run on time. But to make matters worse, the budget creates special districts near Subway stops allowing the MTA to tax residents even more.
$225 million for a shared services gimmick – a publicity stunt to help Albany dodge responsibility for its role in driving high property taxes across the state. Instead of real mandate reform, this program uses state tax dollars to pays for limited savings from sharing local services.

The Governor’s budget shows that Albany just wants more of your tax dollars for themselves. They’re lying about tax reform and wasting resources fighting Washington instead of saving you money.

Call your Senator and Assemblymember NOW and tell them you deserve better than billions in tax hikes and government waste. Find your legislator and their contact information here.