TAX NEWS - 2010

Cuomo: Let Tax Hike Die

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for governor, said Monday he favors allowing a tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers to expire next year.

Last year, under pressure from labor unions, Gov. David Paterson and lawmakers approved the largest jump in New York's personal-income-tax rate in nearly five decades, adding two new brackets for a three-year period ending after 2011.

Mr. Cuomo said he would be opposed to extending the increase beyond 2011. "I was against it at the time, and I still am. It's a new tax. It was supposed to sunset. If it doesn't sunset, it's a tax," he said.

Individual filers earning between $200,000 and $500,000 and married couples with incomes totaling $300,000 to $500,000 now pay a top rate 7.85%, up from 6.85%.

All filers with taxable income of more than $550,000 now pay a flat rate of 8.97%. They used to pay a flat rate of 6.85%.

The increase has generated an estimated $4 billion a year, helping the cash-strapped state avert steeper cuts to education and health care. The question of whether to extend the tax hike will likely become a thorny issue for Albany, starting with next year's budget negotiations.

Barney Keller, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo's Republican rival, Rick Lazio, said: "With Andrew Cuomo, you have to watch what he does, not what he says."