For immediate release: October 11, 2011
Contact: Chloe Tribich, Communications Director, at (347) 573-0773
Statement of Dave Palmer, Executive Director, on Millionaires March
Today’s “Millionaires Marchers” are on the mark: To get people back to work, we must spend money to educate our children and fix our infrastructure, not on windfall tax breaks for the wealthiest.
In New York, keeping the high-income surcharge could, for instance:
• Put back more than 10,000 teachers in the classroom and restore other education cuts ($1.3 billion);
• Repair the sewers that carry drinking and waste water in Niagara, Franklin and Bronx counties ($1.8 billion); and
• Restore service on bus and subway lines ($117 million) and help reduce the MTA’s $9.9 billion capital program budget.
If the tax cut goes through on December 31, our state’s richest will pay only seven cents of every dollar in state and local taxes, while the middle class — teachers, secretaries and retail clerks — will pay 12 cents of every dollar.
There’s no evidence that rich New Yorkers will move if the tax remains in place. When New Jersey passed a similar tax on high-earners, almost none left the state and net tax revenues increased dramatically, according to a 2008 Princeton University study.
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