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NY Gov. Cuomo facing budget shortfall, but says 'raising taxes on the rich... would be the worst thing to do'
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NY Gov. Cuomo facing budget shortfall, but says 'raising taxes on the rich... would be the worst thing to do'

State income tax revenues are reportedly down by $2.3 billion

In a news conference on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed President Donald Trump's tax policies for a drop in state tax revenue that was forcing him to cut spending. He also cautioned against raising taxes on the wealthy to make up the difference, saying that would be "the worst thing to do."

What are the details?

Cuomo argued that the $2.3 billion shortfall was due to caps on state and local tax deductions found in last year's GOP tax bill. Under the new rules set out by the tax bill, state deductions are capped at $10,000. Prior to this, New York's average deductions were more than twice that amount.

Cuomo said that this bill had "literally restructured the economy to help red states at the cost of blue states. That's exactly what it did. It was a diabolical political maneuver in the tax, that actually raised taxes on Democratic states, lowered taxes on Republican states, and financed the Republican state tax cut from the Democratic states."

New York has one of the highest income tax rates in the country, ranging from 4 to 8.82 percent, according to a Business Insider article from April. Only California, Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., had higher rates.

Cuomo had recently proposed a $175 billion state budget, but now says that this is "unsupportable."

He called the drop in revenue "serious as a heart attack" and "worse than we had anticipated." He said that it was the "most serious revenue shock the state has faced in many years."

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli echoed Cuomo's dire analysis, saying that this was "the most serious revenue shock the state has faced in many years."

What else?

Cuomo warned against raising taxes "on the rich" to make the budget balance.

"I don't believe raising taxes on the rich. That would be the worst thing to do. You would just expand the shortfall," he said, according to the New York Post. "God forbid if the rich leave.

"Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich. The rich leave, and now what do you do?" Cuomo asked.

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