DEFRANCISCO ON CONVOLUTED CUOMO INCOME TAX SCHEME: “The Work Of A Mind Severed From Reason And Reality”

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s convoluted new personal income tax scheme  — it would create up to 2,287 new bureaucratic entities in New York — is “the work of a mind severed from reason and reality,” New York state senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate John A. DeFrancisco today charged.

Governor Cuomo’s legally dubious scheme would have New York school districts, counties, towns, cities and villages create fake individual charitable organizations to which a select group of taxpayers could donate in lieu of paying traditional taxes. Governor Cuomo’s “desperate proposal,” conjured in response to new federal tax cuts that eliminate federal deductions for state and local property taxes exceeding $10,000 in exchange for other financial benefits, is Governor Cuomo’s way of admitting that he won’t lower taxes as needed in New York, Senator DeFrancisco said.

“This governor is so busy trying to gain national headlines that he fails to realize that the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers are benefitting from the Republican income tax cuts,” Senator DeFrancisco said. “But in typical Cuomo fashion, Andrew is dreaming up a massive new government expansion that would raise administrative costs across the state, distract our school districts from providing the education our children need, and put taxpayers in legal jeopardy with the IRS. All of this governor’s magical thinking — with this scheme and so many others that have flopped over the past seven years — is designed to avoid the obvious: New York needs to cut taxes, which I will do as governor.”

Senator DeFrancisco also took aim at Governor Cuomo’s head scratching proposal to further burden New York businesses by creating a new, legally questionable scheme to create a employer-paid payroll tax system in New York to run alongside its existing income tax system.

“This governor can complicate the obvious better than any big government politician I’ve ever seen,” Senator DeFrancisco continued. “Instead of bringing taxes in line with other states, Mr. Cuomo would heap more bureaucratic burdens onto the backs of New York businesses already suffering under one of the most oppressive regulatory systems in the nation. I can’t think of a better way to chase more jobs out of New York State, and shudder to think what this governor will come up with next.”