Astorino proposes cut in personal income tax rates

ALBANY -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino Wednesday proposed significant cuts to New York's personal income tax rate and a reduction in the number of tax brackets from eight to two.

Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who says he is running on his record and has not offered any new proposals for a second term, brushed off Astorino's proposal and said he's already cut state tax rates.

Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins went in another direction, saying he'd raise taxes on the top 5 percent of earners while cutting rates for everyone else.

Cuomo, Astorino and scores of other New York politicians were expected to cross paths at the annual Alfred E. Smith dinner in Manhattan last night.

Astorino, the Westchester County executive, unveiled his tax-cut proposal in a speech to the Association for a Better New York in Manhattan. He said he would cut the tax rate for individuals earning $200,000 or less, and married couples earning $300,000 or less, to 4 percent. That would be a 40 percent cut.

New Yorkers in those income ranges pay an income tax rate of 6.65 percent.

Under Astorino's plan, anyone making more than that would go into the upper income bracket and pay 6 percent. Current tax law dictates those individuals who earn slightly more than $200,000 annually but less than $1 million pay 6.85 percent. Individuals who earn more than $1 million pay 8.82 percent.

The Republican also outlined other planks of his economic plan, including expanding natural gas drilling upstate -- which he said would help cover the costs of the tax cuts.

He also said he would eliminate the controversial Common Core academic standards and repeal an assault weapons law, referred to as the Safe Act, that Cuomo has championed.

Cuomo, who has barely campaigned so far, countered that he's already addressed income tax rates.

"Every New Yorker's taxes are lower today than they were four years ago," Cuomo said in Albany Wednesday, although he did hike taxes in 2011 on those who earn $1 million or more annually.

A so-called millionaires' tax, enacted to help the state deal with the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, was set to expire at the end of 2011, bringing down the top state tax rate to 6.85 percent. Cuomo had vowed not to renew the millionaires' surcharge, but with the state facing a deficit that year, he reversed course. The governor and legislators approved a tax package that instead hiked the top rate back up to 8.82 percent.

Cuomo makes his claim of lowering everyone's taxes because the new millionaires' tax rate he imposed is slightly lower than the old one, 8.97 percent.

With Michael Gormley