ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo walked back threats from last week that he would raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest should Washington fail to grant additional federal aid to state and local governments hit hard by COVID-19.
“If Washington does not step up to the plate here and get us financial aid, we are going to be in a whole world of hurt for a long time. This state, between the state and the local governments we need about $50 billion,” the governor said Tuesday during an interview with Long Island Radio.
New York budget officials have estimated a high of $59 billion is needed over the next two years to close the state and local governments’ budget deficits, as well as those of the MTA and the Port Authority.
“People say, ‘Oh well, raise taxes, raise taxes.’ I raise taxes, it puts the state at a competitive disadvantage because people can go to other states and taxes are very high in this state to begin with,” he argued.
“But OK, raise taxes, if we went to the highest income tax in the country, which is now California, we’d raise a couple of billion dollars. Couple of billion dollars? We have a $50 billion hole! What am I going to do with a couple of billion dollars, so Washington has to step up and stop the politics and just get it done.”
Cuomo has previously shied away from hiking taxes, but last Thursday threatened that an increase could be inevitable, given the Empire State’s budget crisis.
New York City already has the highest combined state and local income tax rate, at 12.7 percent, according to the Tax Foundation think tank.
But state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) have said they would support tax increases to stave off cuts to state education and health budgets.