Assembly Republicans sign “tax-free” pledge
From Jon Campbell of the Gannett Albany Bureau:
Four members of the Assembly minority announced earlier today they signed a “tax-free” pledge, promising to vote down any increases in state taxes contained in the 2010 budget. Gov. David Paterson will release his 2010-11 budget proposal on Tuesday and lawmakers have to adopt a spending plan by April 1.
The pledge, open to both Democrats and Republicans, also asks for spending restraint and increased transparency.
Assemblymen Greg Ball, R-Patterson; George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, Schenectady County; James Tedisco, R-Schenectady; and Tony Jordan, R-Jackson, Washington County; signed the pledge at a press event in the Legislative Office Building.
“The legislature cannot tax and spend its way out of the abyss that has been built by years of reckless spending,” Ball said in a statement. “This pledge must be taken seriously and members on both sides of the aisle need to wake up and realize that the party is over. We must get New York state back on track and break this state’s addiction to spending.”
The pledge was sent to Paterson and all state legislators, and Tedisco is keeping a copy in his office for any other lawmakers who wish to sign.
Several business groups lent their support for the pledge, including the National Federation of Independent Business and the state Business Council.
“New York’s struggling small business owners – our job creators – cannot afford to send even more of what they work so hard to earn to Albany, especially in this economy and on the heels of last year’s record-breaking, job-killing tax and fee hikes,” said Mike Elmendorf, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.
Six other Republican Assembly members have agreed to sign, but did not attend the press event. They are Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County; Joseph Errigo, R-Conesus, Livingston County; Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, Chenango County; James Bacalles, R-Corning, Steuben County; Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Smithtown, Suffolk County; and Dede Scozzafava, R-Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County.
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I wonder if this “pledge” also includes state fees such as DMV, toll hikes, fees on utility bills and all the other “fees” that are never called taxes or if this is yet another semantic game by narrowly defining “state taxes” to be the state income tax rate? Under this “pledge” the Republicans that singed have closed the door on meaningful property tax relief and whole host of other good projects. It’s too bad they’re too deeply involved in playing than they are in actually cutting state spending.
This is exactly what we need to get the conversation going. We cannot take more spending or taxes. In fact, spending should go down by at least $9B. I hope more elected officials, from both sides of the aisle, do what is right and join this group of leaders. Any one that will not sign on should not be returned to Albany. How many challengers for office this fall will sign?
It must be fun to be able to make up your own facts and just spew them over the blogosphere like so much manure. I read the pledge, and its all taxes and fees. It would not affect the property tax cap proposals each of the members have authored and support. They and the public are sick and tired of the Governor and legislative leaders saying one thing then doing another. Rhetoric doesn’t cut it anymore . We need to get their written pledge. Congratulations to Tedisco and his fellow members for leading the way. And best of luck on your potential return to reality. Your statement has you officially classified as a fool.
The name-calling was unnecessary Jon. Hopefully you’re not the same as wrote the article. Perhaps the JN might want to run the actual text of this pledge as a quick google search has not found it.
And please, pardon me for being cynical but this is New York and this is NY politics and the politician at the focus of the article has been one of the best at smoke and mirrors.
Thanks to Cara Matthews I have a copy of this pledge. It’s as vacuous as I had imagined:
It’s all standard campaign semantics that mean nothing. What’s worse is that they offer no alternatives to the current state budget crisis and leave the entirety of that on the shoulder of the governor. So, he cuts budgets and the politicians blame him for, as one said the other day, “taking money away from our children”. So the money goes back in the budget.
If Republicans want to be taken seriously they need to offer budget cuts of their own and a fiscal plan to reach a spending plan we can live with.
And by the way, the pledge as written would preclude shifting the burden of school property taxes onto a progressive, graduated income tax since some people’s income tax rate would rise even though their property tax bill would decrease quite substantially. In the semantic game the state GOP is playing that would constitute a tax increase.
You know, it’s just embarrassing.