Hawkins for Auditor

Hawkins Wants Tax Cuts for 95% of New Yorkers, Not Astorino's Tax Cuts for the Rich 

(Watertown) Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for Governor, said today  that he opposes the call by his Republican opponent to provide even more tax cuts to wealthy New Yorkers by cutting the income tax.

 "Every politician tells you they want to cut taxes but what they don't make clear is they primarily want to cut taxes for their campaign contributors. The wealthy especially want to cut the income tax because that is the biggest part of their tax bill. What this means is that services are cut while the tax burden is shifted to the property and sales taxes, which makes up most of the tax bill for low- and middle-income New Yorkers," noted Hawkins.

In New York State, the janitor at TrumpTowers pays a higher percentage of his income for state and local taxes than Donald Trump, Rob Astorino or Andrew Cuomo.

In a speech earlier today, Astorino said that "My inclination is for two rates - 4% for all income under $200,000 ($300,000 for married couples) and 6% for all marginal income above $200,000 ($300,000 for married couples)."

Hawkins has laid out a revenue plan to provide a tax cut for 95% of New Yorkers while raising $30 billion  (about 20%) in additional state revenues. Local taxes would be lowered through increase state aid for schools and revenue sharing with local governments. Hawkins would also slash property taxes that now go to Medicaid by enacting a single payer health care system that would reduce annual health care expenditures by $29 billion by 2019 according to the state's own study.

Hawkins noted that the 4% proposed by Astorino is twice as high as the lowest rate that existed in 1970.

Below is Hawkins' platform on state revenues.

By restoring the more progressive tax structure New YorkState had in the 1970s, we could increase revenues by about $30 billion a year. 95% of New Yorkers would get a tax cut by having the top 5% and particularly the top 1% pay the taxes they used to pay. $30 billion would add more than 20% to New YorkState's $140 billion budget. With $30 billion more in state revenue, we could restore full funding for public schools and colleges, pay for the state mandates on local governments through increased revenue sharing, cut regressive local property and sales taxes, and build the infrastructure and services of the Green New Deal. 

• Stop rebating the Stock Transfer Tax ($12 to $16 billion in recent years).
• End corporate welfare ($7 billion a year).
• Restore the more progressive personal and business income taxes of the 1970s ($8 billion a year).
• More progressive estate taxes.
• Cut regressive sales and property taxes.
• Circuit breaker on property taxes and rents.
• State payment for state mandates on local governments.
• Restore state revenue sharing with municipal governments to 8% of state revenues ($5 billion).