But the cost of living keeps rising.
The wealthy few—pandemic profiteers, corporate billionaires, luxury developers—rig the rules to drive up prices of everything we need to survive.
And the rich hoard income growth.
Over the last 40 years, the top 1% have captured almost half of our economic growth. Their incomes have gone up, while keeping everyone else’s stagnant.
Making New York the most unequal state in the country.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1% take home 31% of all income in New York State, compared to 21% nationwide.
But we have a solution:
TAX THE RICH.
And it’s popular. Really popular.
The Bills
Revenue Bills
Bills to raise over $20 billion from the rich and their corporations
Corporate Tax
Capital Gains Tax
Progressive Income Taxes (“PIT”)
Heirs Tax
Billionaires’ Tax
Spending Bills
Bills to build the New York we deserve and reinvest in public goods
Housing Security
Good Cause Eviction
Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP)
Green New Deal for New York
Build Public Renewables Act
MTA Freeze Fares, Fund Frequency, & Free Bus Act
Universal Childcare and Education
Revenue Bills
Corporate Tax raises $9 billion
In 2017, Republicans cut the federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Many businesses, such as LLCs and partnerships, don’t pay corporate tax at all.
In 2021, due to our advocacy, New York State added a new corporate tax bracket for businesses making over $5 million a year, raising their tax rate from 6.5% to 7.25%. We must ensure this tax is made permanent and expanded to close tax loopholes and ensure the wealthiest corporations pay what they owe.
Capital Gains Tax raises $12.5 billion
Most people pay taxes on their wage income with every paycheck. But the very wealthy make much of their money from buying and selling investments, or “capital gains,” not wages.
Federal tax law provides a large tax break for capital gains, which means that feckless billionaires like Elon Musk pay less tax than you do.
This bill adds an additional tax on the investment income of only the top 1.3% of tax filers. About 99% of filers would see zero change in their tax rates.
Progressive Income Taxes (“PIT”) raises $15 billion
In 1972, the state tax code included fourteen tax brackets. In subsequent years, Republicans eliminated the brackets for the wealthiest and narrowed the range of taxes to benefit the wealthy.
In 2021, we fought and raised the PIT for those making over $1 million a year, and added progressive tax brackets at $1M, $5M, and $25M.
Today, we’re fighting to restructure the income tax code to create more progressive tax brackets and raise revenue from the top 5% wealthiest New Yorkers.
Heirs Tax raises $8 billion
We have the highest tax rates on income from work, lower tax rates on income from investments, and no taxes on inherited income. The rich remain rich because they inherit enormous amounts of wealth, often completely untaxed. This bill would overhaul our inheritance taxes with an Heirs Tax that treats inheritances as taxable income.
Mark-to-Market Billionaires’ Tax raises $34 billion the first year, then $1.7 billion each year thereafter.
The wealthiest New Yorkers pay almost no tax on their vast accumulations of wealth because they almost never sell their assets. Billionaires use these assets to derive huge amounts of cash through loans and other instruments, and then pass on their wealth to their heirs while avoiding taxes.
The mark-to-market income tax creates a yearly tax on the annual increase in value of a billionaire’s total wealth. This would require billionaires to pay tax on their real economic income (their total gain in wealth).
Spending Bills
Housing Security
Housing security has been eroding, and corporate developers are getting richer while the majority of people are increasingly at risk of losing their homes. Rents across New York increased up to 40% over the last two years, and homelessness is at levels unseen since the Great Depression. This crisis, in one of the world’s richest states, has fallen hardest on people of color, but the lack of access to safe, affordable housing hurts all of us.
Good Cause Eviction
(S.305)
Good Cause Eviction provides safeguards for tenants from unfair and unreasonable eviction practices, empowers renters to demand improvements and better living conditions in their homes, and puts an end to exorbitant increases in rent that are affecting the entire state.
Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP)
The Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) provides rental subsidies for New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes and caps tenants’ rents at 30% of their income. Investing $250 million into HAVP will create up to 16,000 vouchers to house New Yorkers.
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) allows tenants to own or remain as renters in their homes when their building is up for sale.
Tenants could convert their building to resident-controlled housing, non-profit rentals, community land trusts, or more, using existing public subsidy programs. This reduces incentives for landlords to keep buildings in disrepair to sell them for profit.
Taxing the rich and investing $250 million in TOPA will convert 1,600 homes to democratically-controlled community-owned housing in the first year alone.
Fund Public Housing
Fund Public Housing with $6.514 billion for badly-needed repairs in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and cancel $538 million in rent arrears for NYCHA residents who did not qualify for Emergency Rental Assistance. $351 million will also fund upstate public housing authorities.
Green New Deal for New York
A Green New Deal for New York is critical to fighting climate change and transitioning away from an energy system that poisons our air and water and hikes our energy bills—all in the name of corporate profit. We need to build renewable energy that makes our communities healthier, safer, and more affordable.
Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA)
The Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) enables the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build enough renewable energy to meet our climate targets to reduce carbon emissions. Passing our version of the bill that includes strong labor provisions, democratization elements, and a mandate to build will ensure a truly just transition.
Fix the MTA
Fix the MTA: Freeze Fares, Fund Frequency, & Free Bus Act is a comprehensive spending proposal to fund the MTA to keep fares at $2.75, increase subway and bus frequency, and phase in free buses over the next four years. By taxing the ultra-rich and their corporations, we can invest $3.3 billion on average per year and create desperately needed improvements in the nation’s largest public transportation system.
Universal Childcare & Education
Universal Childcare and Education means providing free childcare to all New Yorkers, and ensuring all New Yorkers can attend our public colleges tuition-free.
The Universal Childcare Act
(S.3245)
According to a federal affordability threshold of 7% of income, center-based child care is too expensive for 93% of families who have young children, while home-based care is too expensive for 80% of these families. The Universal Childcare Act will create a statewide, high-quality, free childcare system that meets the needs of children and families, invests in the childcare workforce, and ensures all children can access care, regardless of immigration status.
A New Deal For CUNY
A New Deal For CUNY would not only save the university from further state budget cuts, but reverse decades of underfunding driven by austerity and racism. The bill restores a tuition-free university for all students, mandates more than adequate staffing ratios, and funds the building maintenance CUNY schools desperately need.
