O’Mara, Senate Majority colleagues propose ‘Affordability Agenda’ to combat high taxes

Albany, N.Y., January 9—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats) and his Senate Majority colleagues today proposed a broad-based “Affordability Agenda” aimed at reducing New York State’s high tax burden.

“Governor Cuomo began his tenure back in 2011 by stating that New York State cannot survive as the tax capital of America.  I agreed one-hundred percent but seven years down the road, we still have not done enough to get our residents and businesses out from under one of the nation’s heaviest tax burdens.  The Senate’s focus in 2018, beginning today, is to make this state more affordable and that starts with lower taxes,” O’Mara said.

Later today, the Senate will act on two pieces of legislation that O’Mara co-sponsors and that are central to the Senate’s “Affordability Agenda.”  One measure (S1207) would make permanent the two-percent cap on local property tax increases established in 2011.  A second proposal calls for establishing a permanent two-percent cap on annual growth in state government spending (S365).

Overall, the Affordability Agenda unveiled today focuses on broad-based tax relief. It includes:

> lower income taxes;

> lower property taxes, including a 25-percent increase in the size of current property tax rebate payments, freezing school property taxes at current levels for senior citizens, and phasing in the elimination of school property taxes for seniors over the next decade;

> lower energy taxes, including the elimination of the two-percent Gross Receipts Tax on utility bills;

> lower taxes on retirement, including doubling the current exemption on pension income and saving seniors an additional $275 million;

> reforms to control state spending, including a permanent state spending cap, and preventing future tax increases; and

> significantly reducing existing unfunded mandates on local governments and amending the State Constitution to ban any future unfunded mandates.

O’Mara said that the Senate Majority has been responsible for the enactment of 85 tax cuts over the past seven years. This includes the lowest middle-class tax rates since 1948, the lowest manufacturing rates since 1917, the lowest corporate rates since 1968, and a local property tax cap for homeowners.

For more information on the  Senate's Affordability Agenda, click HERE.