The Senate yesterday passed the 2013-14 New York State Budget, which provides tax relief for middle-class families, helps businesses create jobs and keeps spending growth below two percent.
The budget affords middle class families a $350 Family Tax Relief credit and increased tax breaks for small businesses. It also incorporates many of the proposals in the Senate Republican’s “Blueprint for Jobs” plan, providing for the reduction and elimination of the utility tax surcharge beginning next year. In addition, it increases state school aid by almost $1 billion, offering relief to property taxpayers.
“This is a business-friendly and family-friendly budget because it emphasizes the Senate Republican’s priorities to help businesses create new jobs and provide tax relief to struggling middle-class families,” Senate Republican Conference Leader Dean G. Skelos said. “Our responsibility is to respond to their needs and to make sure that our economy grows in the years to come and, in this budget, we achieved these important goals.”
The Senate Republican-issued “Blueprint for Jobs,” is a comprehensive plan to grow the state’s economy and help businesses become more competitive through reduced taxes and costs, economic investments and increased job training. The budget incorporates many of the elements from that plan, including:
- Almost $600 million in tax relief for New York businesses over the next three years, including a reduction in personal income taxes on business income ($60 million) for hundreds of thousands of small businesses that pay personal income taxes.
- A reduction in the Corporate Tax on manufacturers, helping them reduce costs and compete more effectively.
- Reducing and eliminating the 18a energy tax surcharge on business and residential ratepayers over three years starting next year, reducing energy bills for all business and residential ratepayers.
- Tax credits for business that hire veterans returning home from military service. The credit will equal 10 percent of wages paid and increase to 15 percent of wages if a veteran employee is disabled.
- A refundable tax credit for businesses that hire people under the age of 20, saving them $112 million over 3 years.
- $1.25 million to support the operating budgets of the state’s business incubators and to create or designate 10 high-tech business incubators affiliated with higher education institutions with tax benefits for tenant businesses.
- $5 million to attract and retain tens of thousands of jobs through the “Next Generation Job Linkage Program,” a partnership between community colleges, local employers and the Regional Economic Development Council aimed at providing comprehensive training specifically tailored to meet the needs of individual employers.
- Reforms to modernize and simply the state’s workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance programs, saving $1.3 billion (the savings do not impact workers’ benefits).
- Strengthening the state’s agriculture industry through the “Grown in New York” plan, designed to expand marketing efforts to promote New York-made foods and produce.
- $55 million to fund a third round of competitive grants for the SUNY 2020 economic development program and $55 million to create a similar program for CUNY schools.
The budget also incorporates tax relief initiatives for families, including:
- A Family Tax Relief credit in the amount of $350 over the next three years for each family with at least one dependent child and a household income between $40,000 and $300,000. The total tax relief for middle class families will be $1.23 billion over three years, beginning in 2014.
- Extending the middle class personal income tax rate reductions enacted in 2011, which were due to expire in 2014. The tax rate reductions provide 4.4 million taxpayers with $707 million in tax relief per year.
- Continue inflation indexing, approved in 2011, in order to provide taxpayers with a hedge against inflation and to avoid unintended tax increases that could otherwise happen as a result of normal income growth. The indexing provision will save taxpayers $230 million next year.
“Middle class families are struggling because everyday costs keep going up, the cost of raising children is rising and now the federal government is taking more taxes out of people’s paychecks,” Senator Skelos said. “Middle class families in New York deserve relief and, thanks to the efforts of Senate Republicans, this budget gives them much-needed tax relief.”
The budget also includes education, local government, transportation, property tax and environmental conservation initiatives.
What’s your opinion of the budget? Include your thoughts below or on our Long Island Living Discussion Forum.
