A particular leader of the New York Legislature seems to be quite in a hurry to pass the new “tax the rich” measure before Christmas comes up. This will aid in raising revenues and keeping the legalizing of marijuana and gambling at hold till next year. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) claimed in an official statement, “I think something like an income tax, if you want to get a full year’s value of it, I think you do have to consider it now. Fellow Democrats in the state Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo would have to agree to do an income tax on wealthy earners in such a short time frame. The governor still has the ability to say yea or nay”.
Heastie further acknowledged that “any law approved next March or April to raise income taxes — and applied retroactively — could be struck down as unconstitutional because the state is required to give taxpayers prior notice of any changes and more complex matters — such as legalizing weed for raising taxes on investments — would be debated early next year rather than in an emergency session”. Cuomo claims that “raising taxes in pre- or post-Christmas emergency session before seeing what action Congress and President Trump or President-elect Joe Biden take in the next few weeks” would not be a very good idea.
