The new report by E.J. McMahon, “The Right Way to Cure New York’s Looming Budget Gap,” is the latest warning about the tax increases that many see coming after the election. The Manhattan Institute expert warns the tax increase are a sure way to keep the private sector from gaining strength. The report uses STAMP, an acronym for the State Tax Analysis Modeling Program, to determine that the governor’s cuts in the income and sales tax have generated at least 117,000 jobs since 1995, nearly 20% of the state’s new jobs in that stretch of time. Mr. McMahon notes that the tax increases of the early 1970s and 1990s, which were intended to being in income in tough times, instead exacerbated ongoing fiscal crises by reducing economic activity in the private sector. His report goes on to calculate that a new income tax surcharge, an idea that has been floating around Albany, would cost the state some 46,000 jobs. To recover from our present problems, Mr. McMahon proposes payroll reductions and scaling back our Medicaid program, which is the nation’s most expensive. He also suggests restraining and restructuring school aid, eliminating non-essential capital projects, enacting real debt reform, a pay freeze, privatization, the enactment of already scheduled tax cuts, and new tax cuts. This may sound like a series of small, wonkish steps, but they’ll provide an incentive to growth, while the alternatives being talked about will be a series of small steps to a big collapse.