O’Mara: Senate GOP budget will reject tax and fee increases proposed by Cuomo

Elmira, N.Y., March 9—New York State’s budget adoption process gets under way in earnest next week with both houses of the Legislature scheduled to adopt their respective versions of what should be included in the final, 2017-2018 state budget.

Commonly known as “one-house” budget plans, following the adoption of the plans the Senate and Assembly will convene public, joint budget conference committees to begin ironing out differences before entering into final budget negotiations with Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that the Senate one-house budget will recommend rejecting hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax and fee increases being proposed by  the governor.

“The last thing a New York State taxpayer needs is to have to pay another tax or another fee,” said O’Mara.  “We need to be moving in the other direction, which means lower taxes and fewer fees.”

According to the Senate and Assembly fiscal committees, Cuomo’s 2017-2018 proposed state budget, which he unveiled in late January, contains upwards of $800 million in higher taxes and increased fees, including a series of new motor vehicle fees, new taxes on internet purchases, and a new surcharge on pre-paid cell phones.

O’Mara noted that the previous six state budget have been balanced and enacted without resorting to any tax-and-fee increases.  Since 2011, the Senate Republican Majority has led the effort to cut taxes 78 times, totaling $11 billion.

A new state budget is scheduled to take effect on April 1, the start of New York’s new fiscal year.

Find more details on the 2017-2018 state budget HERE.