Tax cuts in 2016. Haunt voters in 2018.

Watch your wallet, NY: Cuomo wants to 'restructure' taxes

When Gov. Cuomo gives his State of the State Address on Wednesday, he'll have a chance to explain his plan to "restructure" New York's tax code. Want to bet the "cure" turns out to be worse than the disease? Cuomo says the overhaul is needed in the wake of Washington's tax reform, which caps the state- and local-tax deduction.

From article, (When Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives his State of the State Address on Wednesday, he’ll have a chance to explain his plan to “restructure” New York’s tax code.
Cuomo says the overhaul is needed in the wake of Washington’s tax reform, which caps the state and local tax deduction. That will mean much of New York’s sky-high taxes will no longer be deductible on the federal 1040. Cuomo sees that as a “political” hit on high-tax states like New York.

But the only way to soften the blow would be to lower New York taxes, particularly those on the wealthy, who will be hit hardest. Yet something tells us Cuomo, who’s veering to the left as he eyes a White House run, has something else in mind.

Meanwhile, the state Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference wants to ditch the city’s income tax for residents who earn less than $50,000 a year. It also hopes to shift $431.5 million of the city’s sales tax to fund MTA transit fixes. As if city revenue is there for the taking.

The trouble with all of this is that none of the politicians want to address the real source of New York’s tax and budget woes: spending.

Yes, Cuomo has mostly kept the growth in state outlays to 2 percent a year (with notable exceptions). But New York’s tax burden is the nation’s heaviest. And the only way to bring it down is to pare spending even more.)

Me, "I direct the reader to this New York Times article that warned back in 2016 that a tax cut then would come back to haunt tax payers in 2018. Are lawmakers nuts? There is no forward thinking. Its just what can they do to please voters at present."

Cuomo's Tax Cuts, Boon for Middle Class, Come With Risk

And further reducing revenues could cause those gaps to widen over the years, Mr. Friedfel said, potentially "necessitating tax increases or service cuts." Worse yet, he said, those gaps could become unmanageable if revenues do not continue to grow or if the state falls into another recession.

From 2016 article, (It has become a phenomenon as common in Albany as Monday night fund-raisers or legislators under indictment: a new year, and a new round of tax cuts from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

That trend continued when Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, announced a deal on March 31 to reduce the personal income taxes of an estimated five million New Yorkers who earn $300,000 or less a year. The first phase of those cuts will take effect in 2018 — when Mr. Cuomo is up for re-election — but could be felt long after he leaves office.

Indeed, while initially described as a “billion-dollar tax cut,” the plan will save taxpayers — or deprive tax rolls, depending on one’s point of view — some $4.2 billion in 2025, when it is fully enacted. All told, the cuts are projected by the state to amount to more than $20 billion by that year.

And while that largess is likely to be celebrated by many of New York’s taxpayers, it could also leave the state open to pitfalls, both financial and political.)