Cuomo weighs tax code changes to spur jobs

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday he is looking at changes to the tax code to jump-start job creation in New York.

Though he didn't go into details, Cuomo, in two lengthy radio interviews, said he wouldn't rule out raising tax rates for high earners.

The first-term governor has increasingly expressed his concern over the lagging economy and has said he'd call state legislators for a special session if they could agree to an economic agenda.

"We are discussing ideas about how to use the tax code" to stimulate job growth, Cuomo said. He added later: "The tax code is one of the main instrumentalities I have to affect the economy."

He did not provide further details.

Cuomo first broached the idea of reshaping New York's tax code more than a month ago in a meeting with black and Hispanic legislative leaders. They said the discussion centered on an overhaul of the state's tax structure -- not just the renewal of a so-called millionaires' tax, as some Democrats have promoted.

That tax -- actually a surcharge on individuals earning more than $200,000 annually and families making more than $300,000 -- is set to expire Dec. 31 after Cuomo and Republicans blocked attempts to continue it. Critics said altering tax rates is a backdoor way to raise rates on higher income brackets without raising the millionaires' tax.

"All the focus on the millionaires' tax is, in some ways, misplaced," Cuomo said. "I'm focused on how do you make New York open for business and change the perception of the past? I am talking to the leading economic people in this nation on a daily basis about ideas, thoughts on how do you get this economy running. . . . Many of the suggestions have to do with the tax code.

"If you use the tax code right," it could be a potent tool, Cuomo said.

The governor has said he's concerned about tax "fairness." Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), a proponent of implementing higher rates on those earning $1 million or more annually, increasingly has focused on the topic. He has noted that New York's highest personal-income-tax bracket kicks in at $40,000 in annual income.

"People who make $50,000 can't be paying the same tax rate as people making $5 million," Silver said in recent interview. "It's not right."

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) steadfastly has opposed calls to renew the millionaires' tax. "Our position is clear," Scott Reif, a Skelos spokesman, said Wednesday. "We support cutting taxes, not raising them."

Edmund J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Empire Center, a think tank that supports tax cuts, said raising tax rates for high-income earners would contradict what Cuomo fought for in this year's budget. "Raising the rates at the high end is a tax increase," McMahon said. "It's the tax increase the governor has been saying he's opposed to."