Archive: Business & Technology

As April 15th looms, New Yorkers are thinking about paying taxes.  The prospect is not good.  A new Wallethub analysis released Tuesday finds that New York has the 4th highest tax rates of all the United States.  And in a survey also released Tuesday Americans said they are not happy about taxes.  Fewer than 4 in 10 people said they are happy with President Trump’s tax reforms. 70% said they think they benefit the rich more than the middle class. 89% of people think the government currently does not spend their tax dollars wisely. 36% of people said they would move to a different country for a tax-free future.  24% said they would get an 'IRS' tattoo, 16% said they would stop talking for 6 months, and 15% said they would take a vow of celibacy if they could have a tax-free future.

News for New York taxpayers is especially grim.  The state has the highest income tax rank, the 8th highest real estate tax, 16th highest sales and excise taxes, and 3rd highest overall effective state & local tax rate.  New York has the 5th highest gas taxes, and is tied with Connecticut for having the highest cigarette taxes.  The only good news the analysis reports is that there is no vehicle property tax in New York, which ties the state with several other states in first place.

If President Donald trump passes the budget he has proposed, the financial situation in New York will get worse.  On Wednesday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released a statement saying that an analysis by the state's Division of the Budget shows that Trump's budget "would cut $4.3 billion in health care funding for New York in the first year alone and ultimately lead to a 20 percent reduction in federal health care funding, jeopardizing safety net hospitals and putting at risk the health care coverage of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers."

Cuomo's statement said that in fiscal year 2020, New York projects $4.3 billion in cuts in federal funding for Medicaid and Essential Plan, growing to $10.2 billion in 2021 and $11.2 billion in 2022. By 2026, the cumulative cost to New York due to the effective federal cap on Medicaid will grow to $65 billion.

He added that federal cuts will devastate programs New Yorkers count on, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants, supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, EPA funding, Clean Water funding.  He said the elimination of the Community Development Block Grant program would cost New York State $50 million per year, and funding for federal grants for college students.

The Wallethub survey found that taxpayers like their in-laws, snakes, spiders, cold showers, and traffic jams more than they like taxes.  Almost one in four people think accountants are overpaid.  13% said they'd rather swim with sharks than pay taxes.

And taxpayers across the nation seem to be on Cuomo's side when it comes to Trump's federal budget.  75% said they would rather have taxes go to health care than to a border wall.  50% said health care would be the most important issue in the 2020 election, with only 14% favoring national security as the top issue.

All this chat about taxes could be dismissed as the typical resentment we all feel each year when faced with federal and state tax forms that almost nobody seems to understand, and hefty accountants bills on top of the taxes.  Except for one thing: 89% of people think the government currently does not spend their tax dollars wisely.

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