Paterson's Budget

From David Sirota - Based on his interview last night with Bill Moyers on PBS, it's fair to conclude that New York Gov. David Paterson (D), who wants to raise taxes on working class people and shield the super wealthy from any income tax increase, is either lying or grossly uninformed.

When New Jersey instituted a higher income tax in 2004, researchers found that most people who move away from New Jersey move to states that impose higher income taxes - thus crushing claims of some sort of "automatic link" between people moving away from states and a state moving to slightly raise its income tax rates on the very wealthy.

Likewise, when New York instituted a temporary - and tiny - increase in high-income tax rates after 9/11, the researchers found the state added jobs, and found that the 15 states that have higher income taxes on the wealthy also added jobs - thus destroying Paterson's argument of an "automatic link" between slightly higher taxes on the very wealthy and job loss.

As for Paterson's claim that New Yorkers just love taxing the super-rich, the study found that over the last 30 years, New York has cut its top personal income tax rate on the wealthy by half (15.375% to 6.85%).