February 12, 2013. In this testimony, Frank Mauro made the following six points:

  1. New York State should not cut taxes while the resources provided for education and other essential services are being hit with “Gap Elimination Adjustments” and other austerity measures.
  2. New York State should not provide tax subsidies for companies that outsource jobs or otherwise reduce employment in the state.  Economic development tax breaks should only go to businesses that create and maintain jobs in the state.
  3. Loopholes and tax breaks that allow large, multi-state and multi-national corporations to pay proportionately less in state income taxes than small businesses should be fixed or eliminated.  And the integrity of the Corporate Alternate Minimum tax should be restored so that large, profitable corporations are not able to reduce their tax liability below a reasonable percentage of net income.
  4. Provisions of law that allow investment management income to be taxed less than wages or other business income should be eliminated.
  5. New York State should reduce the pressure that it places on the local property tax by increasing revenue sharing (now called Aid and Incentives for Municipalities) and by increasing (on an “ability to pay” basis) the state share of the cost of both education and Medicaid.
  6. New York State should provide targeted tax relief to long-time residents for whom, through no fault of their own, property taxes on their primary residences have come to represent an inordinate share of their income.