Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Tax Plan Favors Suburbanites’
Eliot Spitzer has yet to unveil his “first detailed tax-cutting proposal,” notwithstanding The New York Sun’s June 16 article on the Democrat’s tax proposal [“Democrat’s Tax Plan Favors Suburbanites, Senior Citizens,” Jacob Gershman, Page 1].
Mr. Spitzer is proposing a $2.5 billion-a-year expansion of Governor Pataki’s $3.2 billion School Tax Relief program. STAR is not a tax cut but a tax shift – more specifically, a form of transfer payment.
A dedicated portion of the state income tax is annually appropriated through the state budget as “aid” to school districts and to New York City, which in turn are required to use the money to finance a discount on local taxes.
Outside New York City, this discount is in the form of a partial property tax exemption available only to homeowners – not to owners of commercial, utility or multi-family residential property. Inside the city, a small property tax break for homeowners is augmented by an across-the-board cut in the residential income tax rate, which benefits a wider range of taxpayers. Through the state, STAR benefits are significantly larger for senior citizens who fall under a fairly generous income threshold.
Since neither government spending nor the overall state-local tax burden are reduced under STAR, it is quite a stretch to call this “tax relief,” much less a “tax cut.”
EDMUND J. MCMAHON JR.
Director, Empire Center for New York State Policy
Senior Fellow for Tax and Budget Studies
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Albany, N.Y.
‘Anti-Fireworks Billboard’
I was distressed to read your article that New York City is hiring a “mobile billboard” to drive across Interstate-80 to warn people about the city’s laws on fireworks [“Anti-Fireworks Billboard Takes to the Road,” New York, June 9, 2006].
For over a decade, New York City has been in a battle with these companies, trying to keep their monstrosities, which serve only to create extra traffic and gridlock, off the streets. The city’s decision to use these trucks means we’ve lost any realistic chance at any control.
DANIEL BURSTEIN
Manhattan
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