Statement From Senator Catharine Young

STATEMENT FROM SENATOR CATHARINE YOUNG

            “Now that the Governor has come to his senses and dropped his absurd plan to force every New Yorker to buy a new license plate, I hope he and New York City-controlled Legislators continue to do right by our taxpayers and restore the STAR rebates and return billions of dollars of new taxes and fees they forced upon us in their disastrous state budget debacle.

            I applaud the outstanding job by the thousands of citizens and county officials from across the state that were outraged by this attempted money grab and took the time to protest and sign grassroots petition drives, including 1,000 of my own constituents who lent their names to my petition, to voice their strong opposition. 

            It is my hope, however, that their victory will not be short lived.

            Already, the New York City leadership in the Senate is secretly considering $1 billion in new taxes on medical services to help address this budget crisis.

            These new taxes would show up on bills to health-care providers which would inevitably be passed along to consumers and local governments - and ultimately that means taxpayers would see their premium rates skyrocket.

            This is a prime example of how Albany has come up with yet another - under the radar - tax scheme designed to reach even deeper into the pockets of every taxpayer to fuel their endless appetite for more government spending.

            Their votes for an unaffordable budget are the reason the state is facing massive deficits and, so far, they have offered no solutions to this crisis, other than to place the state’s fiscal troubles on the backs of taxpayers.

            My Senate Republicans colleagues and I are fully prepared to cut spending to solve this budget crisis, and believe we can do it without our taxpayers shouldering anymore of the burden.   

            But we must act fast.

            This crisis will not resolve itself.  We have very little time left and within weeks, barring dramatic action, the checkbook will be depleted. I urge those New York City-controlled Senators to put politics aside and come to the table for the sake of hardworking taxpayers across the state.”