Unshackle Upstate urges lawmakers to act responsibly
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- July
- 31
Unshackle Upstate, a coalition representing more than 45,000 employers with about 1.5 million employees, said raising taxes, fees and assessments to close the $2.1 billion budget shortfall should not be an option for Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature.
Taxpayers are “already reeling” from last year’s deficit-reduction plan and the 2009-10 state budget, “which will cost families thousands of dollars a year in taxes fees and assessments, and are driving employers out of business or out of New York,” Brian Sampson, executive director of the coalition, said in a statement.
This year’s state budget includes new taxes and fees totaling at least $7 billion, including a higher income tax on wealthy New Yorkers.
“Taxpayers and businesses have had enough,” Sampson said. “Governor Paterson and the Legislature must close the budget gap by cutting costs, and then they must start giving back what they’ve taken from us by reducing the costs of living, working and running a business in this state.”
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 2:21 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
