The report on the bonus tax — coauthored by FPI and CWF — drew coverage from the New York Times, Crain’s and other media outlets. See below for excerpts.
New York Times
Groups Urge Tax on Wall St. Bonuses
By Nicholas Confessore, April 19, 2010
Gov. David A. Paterson and the Legislature have spent weeks arguing over how to cut enough spending to close the state’s $9 billion budget gap, with little progress.
But the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for Working Families, two left-leaning research and advocacy groups, have a different plan. Instead of cutting programs for the many, raise taxes on the wealthiest few, particularly those working on Wall Street, the two groups argue in a new proposal.
“The governor’s paradigm has been that we need to cut everything in order to match current revenues,” said Sunshine Ludder, a senior policy organizer at the center who helped draft the proposal. “Our take is, we need to raise revenues from those who earned windfall profits thanks to the taxpayer bailout.”
Crain’s New York Business
Lawmakers push special tax on banker bonuses
By Daniel Massey, April 19, 2010
With the state in its third week without a budget, a dozen legislators and two liberal policy groups are pushing for a temporary tax on Wall Street bonuses to help plug a $9 billion gap and provide New Yorkers with property tax relief. … All told, the proposals would generate $6 billion per year for two years, according to a report released Monday by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for Working Families. The groups will be joined by a dozen elected officials-including state senators Antoine Thompson, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Andrea Stewart- Cousins, Neil Breslin and Rory Lancman- at an Albany press conference on Tuesday.
“Wall Street received an unearned windfall while cities and towns across New York are being forced to lay off teachers, close parks and raise property taxes,” said Sunshine Ludder, a senior policy organizer at the Center for Working Families. “It’s entirely appropriate to recapture some of those profits to help new York through this economic crisis.”
Gannett
With state budget woes, groups and lawmakers have different solutions
By Cara Matthews and Joseph Spector, April 20, 2010
With no resolution to the state’s budget woes, some groups and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday pushed for new taxes on Wall Street, but Gov. David Paterson knocked the idea and assailed another Democratic proposal to provide property-tax-rebate checks this year. … The state faces a $9.2 billion deficit in the fiscal year that started April 1, and left-leaning groups, as well as education advocates, said Wall Street should help the state avoid expected cuts to schools and health care. … A report released Monday by the Center for Working Families and the Fiscal Policy Institute, a union-backed group, found that a temporary bonus tax could generate between $4.7 billion and $6.9 billion a year and would be levied for up to two years.
Daily Gazette
Group seeks tax on bonus pay: Wall St. move could fix deficit
By Sara Foss, Gazette Reporter, April 24, 2010
A coalition of liberal organizations is asking the state to place a temporary tax on Wall Street bonuses to plug the state’s $9 billion budget deficit.
They say that a bonus tax is a more sensible way to plug the state’s budget gap than the spending cuts that have been proposed.
“We’re facing very tough times,” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. “Our argument is that we need to achieve some sort of balance between cuts and revenue raising.” Cutting state spending, he said, “would pull billions out of the economy” and result in thousands of New Yorkers losing their jobs. “How is that good for the economy?”
