ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s about to get more expensive to buy clothes and shoes, smoke those little cigars, get a discount hotel room off the Internet, and even to be rich in New York. New York’s Legislature plans to pass it all in a package of $950 million in taxes, cuts in tax credits and other measures that will take...
ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s about to get more expensive to buy clothes and shoes, smoke those little cigars, get a discount hotel room off the Internet, and even to be rich in New York.
New York’s Legislature plans to pass it all in a package of $950 million in taxes, cuts in tax credits and other measures that will take effect to close out a $135.7 billion budget three months after it was due.
The 2010-11 budget, pending promised vetoes, would increase spending 1 percent or $1.35 billion over the last fiscal year, one of the smallest increases in 20 years. Gov. David Paterson, however, promises to veto the Legislature’s adds which would make the spending plan revert to his $135.65 billion budget proposed in January.
The revenue bill would temporarily end the exemption to the state’s 4 percent sales tax on clothing costing $110 or less beginning Oct. 1. The bill also expands the Quick Draw game, reduces some tax credits and reductions, while giving Hollywood a bigger tax break to shoot in New York.
It is scheduled to be approved Thursday, and may get a vote shortly after midnight Wednesday night in the Senate when few people other than legislators and staff will be around.
“In the dead of night?” said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. “New Yorkers, I think, probably care about the nickel-and-diming they’re going to be doing ... it doesn’t make for good government.”
“In the dead of night is when he zombies come out, so bad bills can happen,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
The revenue bill was amended Tuesday. Gone is a provision that would have allowed gay couples who were legally married in another state to file joint income tax returns in New York, where gay marriage is illegal. That’s a concession to Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, an ordained minister who opposes gay marriage. He threatened to vote against the revenue bill if the measure was included and that would have defeated the bill, because the Republican minority was expected to continue voting in a bloc against the budget bills.
Also eliminated is the measure that would have denied a school tax exemption under the STAR program to owners of homes worth more than $2 million. The bill also amends a measure that would temporarily end half the state exemption for charitable donations by New Yorkers making $10 million or more a year; it now expires a year later, in 2013.
The bill would:
• End the exemption to the state’s 4 percent sales tax on clothing and shoes costing $110 or less beginning Oct. 1. On April 1, 2011, the exemption would resume, but for clothes and shoes costing $55 or less. The full exemption would return April 1, 2012. The measure is expected to be worth $330 million this fiscal year.
• Increase the hours of Quick Draw, which critics call video crack, while reducing the revenue to operators for wins. That’s valued at $45 million.
• Increase the tax credit to film movies and TV programs in New York, an economic development program that mostly benefits New York City. The bill would extend the credit through 2014 and increase it by $2.1 billion, while increasing accountability.
• Allow the state and municipalities to borrow from the state pension to pay its employer contributions to the state pension and smooth out a spike in payments. Interest will be 5 percent.
• Count prisoners as residents of their last address, most of which are in New York City. That could cost traditionally Republican upstate areas where prisons are located a state Senate seat in next year’s realignment of election districts.
• Require hotels that “re-market” rooms through online services to collect sales taxes from customers. That’s valued at $10 million.
• Limit the New York City personal income tax reduction to the first $100,000 of income, another blow to wealthier New Yorkers.
• Require hedge fund managers who live outside New York but work in New York City to pay the same income tax as those living in New York. That’s worth $50 million.
• Taxing “little cigars” at the higher cigarette rate. A previous budget included the $440 million tobacco tax package that includes $1.60 increase in the tax for a pack of cigarettes to the highest level in the nation. The state tax is now $2.75 per pack, with another $1.50 tax per pack sold in New York City.