Fiscal Crisis: Should NY State Cut Programs, or Raise Taxes?
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
New York State projects a budget deficit of $47 billion in the next four years, and $12.5 billion deficit in next year’s budget. How should the State best address this problem? Take our poll below, or let us know your opinion in the comments.
Watch the entire Town Hall meeting online.
The next step: Governor Paterson has convened an emergency session of the New York State Legislature on November 18 to evaluate nearly $2 billion in proposed budget cuts.
Read more about the Town Hall meeting at the Thirteen Pressroom and Inside Thirteen.
63 Responses to “Fiscal Crisis: Should NY State Cut Programs, or Raise Taxes?”
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It’s time to take school unions and administrators to task.As a Suffolk homeowner, any decrease in school funding will only raise my property taxes.
Make school district consolidation mandatory.Cap school taxes.Get a handle on these school unions.
If school districts have to lay off, make sure that the dead weight goes out the door.The union policy of last in is the first out only insures that we keep
lazy and useless teachers and administrators with bloated salaries and benefits.
I do not know what ahould be done. I do know that I am hanging by a thread. I wish someone would help me.
MY PROBLEM IS LOCAL PROPERTY & SCHOOL TAXES. MY TAXES WERE RAISED 2X THIS YEAR. SCHOOL TAX HAS INCREASE EVERY YEAR SINCE I HAVED LIVED HERE (27 YRS.) I AM TO THE POINT WHERE I JUST CAN’T HANDLE MY MTG. BECAUSE OF TAXES. I LIVE IN A VILLAGE & I PAY VILLAGE & TOWN TAX..THEY JUST PASSED FOR A BRAND NEW LIBRARY TAX. WENT UP THEN THEY WANTED FUND. FOR THIS LIBRARY TAX UP, THEN SCHOOL TAX WAS INCREASED ALL WITHIN MONTHS. LET THESE TEACHERS TEACH WITH THE BLACK BOARD & CHALK. WE MY GENERATION DID JUST FINE! GET RID OF THE BIG PAY.TEACHERS THAT ARE NOT DOING THERE JOB. $100.000.00 A YEAR FOR ASST. VP. LETS GET BACK TO EARNING OUR WAGE. THAT MEANS WORKING FOR IT!
Dear Governor Paterson,
The regional shares for education state aid were frozen years ago when Long Island had 13% of the population.
Long Island School Districts now educate 17% of the state population but still only get 13% of the regional shares.
When will this inequity be rectified so Long Islanders are no longer burdened with subsidizing upstate and New York City school districts?
Why are you pushing a 4% tax cap when voters passed 93% of the school district budgets last year? It is obvious that the people of the state view education as a top priority.
taxpayer/ homeowner
1. Higher tax brackets for the very wealthy.
2. Make sure everyone in the state is insured. This would reduce wasteful spending in the medical system. San Francisco has a special tax on every single restaurant meal served. This money goes into a pool to help pay for health insurance for those who are working, but uninsured. The idea being that if you can afford to buy a nice dinner, you can certainly afford a couple of dollars to help your fellow citizens. Make the tax lower in small towns and significantly higher in big cities, especially cities that have a high tourism rate. That’s one way to help recoup the failing dollar!
3. GREEN our state. Have public building audits, solar panels and green roofs on public buildings, reclaiming and recycling centers, tax breaks for homeowners who retrofit their houses to be greener. Conserve open space! Growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell. More trees and a cleaner environment mean better health for all. It’s no surprise that places like the Bronx (where I live) have extremely high rates of asthma. Better health for all results in lower medical spending and more productive workplaces. Promote bicycle use and community gardens in cities. Serve protein-rich vegetarian meals in public schools. Vegetarian food is better for people, the environment, and it’s significantly less expensive.
4. Mandatory high school community service in local government.
The prosperity of a community is not just about money, but about the good health, happiness and contentment of it’s citizens.
Increase tobacco taxes again… the cost of tobacco related disease costs ALL New Yorkers, not just those that use tobacco! Tax spit tobacco more! Kids are starting to use this more and more because they can get it easier because it is cheaper! MOST IMPORTANTLY keep funding for programs that prove a return on investment for taxpayers such as the NYS tobacco control program that proves it effectiveness and saves New Yorkers money and lives and most importantly keeps kids from starting smoking, which in turn saves even more money! Collect the taxes from tobacco that was sold and is being sold to non-native Americans. New Yorkers are getting ripped off by not collecting these taxes!
Get rid of all the unnecessary cars,trucks,etc.that the state has for higher ups,like the Superintendents for prisons.What is there,like 73 prisons in the state.Gas,Insurance,Upkeep on these vehicles has to cost tax payers a few bucks,plus the salary of these positions, i think they can afford to drive there own vehicles to and from work.The state has to start looking in there own backyard,start trimming the tree from the top and not the little guy on the bottom all the time.Just a thought.
Consolidate departments! 65,000+ households are double-taxed on libraries due to overlapping districts. Assembly bills 3714, 3820 & 3816 would remedy this but Assembly & Senate can’t seem to move them anywhere. The SED of course doesn’t want to consolidate and loosen its grip on their empire while we pay twice for a service that one tax already provides; full access to any library!
As a school teacher I can’t see cutting funding for students. As it is, teachers spend so much of their own money to help the students in their classes. Would the governor consider asking the RICH to help the city they live in by paying more taxes on their incomes. Large companies like Citicorp and others should be encouraged to keep their headquarters in the US, not allowed to move them overseas. These major moves takes funding away from many New Yorker who rely on these companies for their jobs. Who is out their trying to help the families that make less then $200,000.!!!!! Adding more taxes just kills the little guy like us more. Tolls on every bridge just keeps the little guy from getting to work, squeeze us tight enought and we do break!!
I’ve lived in NYS all my life and moved from NYC to Suffolk county 26 years ago. Property taxes have increased disproportionately to middle class income. I’m a small business owner and the cost of doing business in NYS has become so high, looking at other states is becoming attractive. School district consolidation would reduce the redundancy we have and eliminate administrative positions without reducing the number of actual teachers. Patronage or political appointments need to be eliminated. I’m trying to avoid layoffs within my business but there may be no choice.
Raise taxes on all purchases. this way everyone will have to pay, the homeowner, the renter, the visitors and also everyone who works off the books,including the illegals who work for $12.00 -$25.00 per hr.and pay no taxes at all.
go through each agency, cut all perks to upper management, housing, vehicles, fuel, food, etc… Also, cut unnecessary travel between DOCS and other unnecessary medical trips. charge co-pays for medical in detention centers. reappeal the Rockefeller laws and release non violent inmates from prison to alternatives to incarceration. Do not plea bargain down from violent crimes with weapons and portray smoke and mirrors. re-evaluate sentencing restructuring.. the list goes on and on…
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