NORWICH – State Commissioner for the Department of Motor Vehicles Joan McDonald was in Norwich on Thursday to detail Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious $137.2 billion state budget which was unveiled to the public earlier this week.
County and city administrators gathered at the Classic Car Museum on Rexford Street to get a glimpse of the proposed 2014-2015 financial plan and ask questions regarding the impact it may have on taxpayers in Chenango County. The presentation, hosted by Commerce Chenango, was one of several stops Commissioner McDonald made across the Southern Tier and an opportunity at the local level to promote the Classic Car Museum to state officials, noted Commerce Chenango President Steve Craig.
McDonald’s lecture covered key issues in the pending state budget that encompass matters of tax relief, tax credits for businesses and manufacturers, education, labor and healthcare.
“Over the past 30 years, 23 budgets have been late, an average of 50 days,” said McDonald. “Since the Governor has been in office, he has held spending below two percent, which is remarkable. He has taken a $10 billion deficit and turned it into a $2 billion surplus ... New York created 380,000 in past three years and now, it’s number two in the nation in job creation.”
McDonald also noted that in 2009, state spending, taxes and unemployment were on the rise as the number of jobs available decreased. “Today, we have reversed those arrows,” she added. “Taxes, spending and unemployment is down and the number of jobs have gone up.”
The Governor’s proposal takes the state’s longstanding reputation of high taxes into account by offering a number of means for tax relief – the biggest being a property tax freeze for businesses and homeowners. Tax relief efforts are rooted in the state’s $2 billion surplus expected by 2016-2017 fiscal year. The tax freeze is subject to two conditions: first, that the taxing entity adhere to the two percent tax cap; and second, the taxing entity implement a plan to save at least one percent each year for three consecutive years through shared services or consolidation with other taxing jurisdictions.
Said McDonald, “That’s being done by a lot of counties across the state already. If we start proactively taking a look at how to combine some of those services, it would really pay off for the taxpayers in the state.”
The budget also proposes tax relief based on ability to pay for households earning up to $200,000 via a property tax “circuit breaker” which could offer as much as $1 billion in tax relief when fully phased in.
Furthermore, Cuomo’s budget provides relief on the manufacturing front by way of a refundable tax credit equal to 20 percent of a firm’s annual real property taxes, and also reducing the corporate income tax rate to zero for Upstate manufacturers. According to Cuomo, the move will spur economic growth and impart nearly $98 million in tax relief over the next year.
In eduction, the budget focuses heavily on the universal pre-kindergarten and technology upgrades in schools. The budget sets aside $1.5 billion over five years to cover additional costs in universal pre-K, and another $2 billion to make high speed broadband internet access and interactive technologies more accessible in all schools.
In addition, $20 million will be designated to incentivize teacher performance and $8 million to provide full tuition scholarships to the top ten percent of high school graduates who pursue a science or technology career at any SUNY or CUNY college and work in the state for five years thereafter.
What’s more, Cuomo proposes elimination of standardized testing for students in kindergarten through the second grade. He also suggested forming a panel of education experts to focus on issues relative to the Common Core Learning Standards. Panel members would make recommendation for corrective action by the end of the session on how the Common Core should be implemented, said McDonald.
“We want to work with school regions the same way we work with economic development regions to make things happen,” she said.
Big investments in healthcare were also outlined in McDonald’s presentation – $1.2 billion of capital funding for hospitals, clinics and long term care facilities; $70 million over five years to fund regional health planning; and $65 million to create a statewide electronic medical record system.
Other highlights of the proposed budget include $46 million to increase emergency preparedness in the state, more than $10 million to make New York fairer for employees, including minorities and women, and $250,000 for a veterans’ summit and disparity study.