More than 10 months have elapsed since Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he would create a panel to study the state tax code and the group has yet to meet or even have its members appointed, Gannett’s Albany Bureau reports. The governor’s office signaled today that the members of a 13-member commission would be announced later this month.
Cuomo agreed to set up the New York State Tax Reform and Fairness Commission as part of a deal with lawmakers last December surrounding the Jan. 1 expiration of the state’s temporary higher income-tax on wealthy New Yorkers. The tax rates for the middle class dropped slightly and the rate for the state’s top earners was set at a rate higher than what had been scheduled to kick in Jan. 1. The higher taxes for New Yorkers earning more than $2 million a year expire at the end of next year.
Cuomo announced last year that he would set up a 13-member commission to “address long term changes to the tax system and create economic growth.”
Matt Wing, a spokesman for the governor, said the panel’s work will be tied to the 10 regional economic councils.
The tax panel “will quickly begin its work to address long-term changes to the tax system and will look to partner with our local regional economic development councils on how their regions could be strengthened economically by the commission’s work,” Wing said in a statement.
Read more tomorrow in The Journal News and on Lohud.com.
