Makes you just want to scream, doesn’t it? Well those who aren’t working for the largest employers in the county. That being State, County and Federal government, a school or college or all the taxpayer funded Authorities… Well that covers about half the people anyway.

CONFER: No new taxes, just bigger ones

By Bob Confer
The Tonawanda News

Last week in the state capital the Legislature and Gov. Spitzer were arguing over what the budget deficit would be for fiscal year 2008-09. This wasn’t quibbling over pennies; their differences were in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Spitzer believes the deficit will be $4.8 billion. The state assembly pegs the losses even greater at $5.1 billion. Although they couldn’t agree on the exact amount they made it known that they agreed on at least one thing: we’re in the red. Big time.

Over the past four months the Spitzer administration, even to the chagrin of the tax-happy legislature, has devised numerous ploys to increase revenues through bigger taxes. Here are some of the things he wants to do:

Increase the auto insurance surcharge: New York residents see a $5 surcharge (tax) on their auto insurance policy. The governor wants to increase that to $20 per year. Considering there are just under 12 million registered vehicles in the state, the new revenues would be $178.5 million. Playing the safety card, Spitzer says the funds will be used to further the development of New York Alert and to repair many of our 17,000 bridges. Those same news releases fail to tell us that $100 million of the insurance surcharges will be deposited into his Upstate Revitalization Fund, his $1 billion gimmick that starts from Square One — and Dollar Zero — this year.

Tax Internet sales: Every day more and more people take up online shopping. For the smart shopper great deals can be had. In many cases the savings are magnified by the lack of sales taxes. If a business entity does not have a physical operation in New York, state sales taxes cannot be collected. At the end of the year, state residents, on an honor system, are supposed to record such purchases on their tax forms so the state can collect the tax from the consumer. Of course, many New Yorkers don’t record this. Spitzer wants to collect what’s been missing and would like to tax all online stores regardless of their location. His people believe they can rake in at least $100 million every year. If this passes other states will follow suit and the uniqueness that the Internet possesses as a tax-free haven will be gone.

Tax the rich: “….the rich have more money than they need. A just tax structure would ensure that all taxpayers end up with equal spending after taxes.” Eliot Spitzer said those disgusting words last fall. Regardless of one being rich or poor, who is the government to determine the amount of money people should need or have? Spitzer wants to adjust the income tax structure. Currently it is a graduated scale that goes from 4 percent to 6.85 percent. He wants to move the top end to around 8 percent.

Tax subsidiaries: As it stands a company can do business with its out-of-state subsidiary and not be taxed on it because, after all, it’s just an intercompany transaction, a business doing business with itself. Spitzer wants to change this. Charging taxes on such transactions will allow Albany to rake in at least $215 million a year. That is, until some companies decide to leave because of it.

These four changes to the tax structure are just a few of the many that Spitzer has proposed. He’s right … he’s not making any new taxes. But, he sure is trying to squeeze every last penny out of our residents and businesses with the taxes he does have.

Bob Confer is a Gasport resident and vice president of Confer Plastics Inc. in North Tonawanda. E-mail him at bobconfer@juno.com.

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