Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has named a former Republican governor and Peekskill mayor, George C. Pataki, as co-chairman of a newly formed state Tax Relief Commission.
Announcing the commission”™s creation at a Wednesday news conference at Manhattanville College in Purchase, Cuomo also named Heather C. Briccetti, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State, to represent the state business community”™s interests on the eight-member board.
H. Carl McCall, the former Democratic state comptroller and current chairman of the SUNY board of trustees, was named commission co-chairman with Pataki.
Cuomo said the commission will identify ways to reduce the state”™s property and business taxes to provide relief to homeowners, renters and businesses. Its recommendations are due Dec. 6 with the governor, who plans to include them in his 2014 State of the State message and legislative agenda.
“The responsible budgets and fiscal reforms put in place over the last three years have put the state in a position to seriously tackle the ”˜tax capital”™ mentality that for too long has driven businesses and families from New York,” Cuomo said. The commission”™s recommendations for reducing burdensome taxes will help “make our state more competitive and fuel economic growth,” he said.
Cuomo said the commission will collaborate with the Tax Reform and Fairness Commission that he launched last December to conduct a comprehensive review of the state”™s taxation policy, including corporate, sales and personal income taxation, and make recommendations to improve and simplify the current tax system.
McCall said in a press release that high taxes are one of the most challenging issues facing economic growth in New York. “But as a former state comptroller, I can say that New York is in the best fiscal shape it has been in years because of the governor”™s constant efforts to control spending and bring jobs to New York. This commission has the opportunity to build on that success to lower taxes for middle class and working families.”
Briccetti, who succeeded Cuomo”™s economic development commissioner and Empire State Development president and CEO Kenneth Adams as head of the state Business Council in Albany, said the organization welcomed the chance to join in the effort “to relieve the burden of property taxes, which cost business in the state more than $17 billion each year, and review the long list of other taxes that are unduly burdensome to business.”
Pataki in a statement praisin g Cuomo for putting politics aside since taking office to work for common goals that benefit New Yorkers. “Growing the economy and promoting a business climate that encourages job creation is one of the most important roles government can play,” he said.
Other members of the Tax Relief Commission are Dall Forsythe, former state budget director; James Wetzler, director at Deloitte Tax L.L.P. and former state tax commissioner; William Rudin, senior adviser at Brown & Weinraub P.L.L.C.; Jack Quinn, president of Erie Community College in Buffalo, Denis M. Hughes, former president of New York State AFL-CIO.
