Suburban pols are demanding they get a cut of congestion pricing cash meant to rescue the subways — even though city taxpayers already underwrite the commuter railroads.

The Long Island Railroad and Metro-North got 37 percent of the MTA’s construction budget over the last decade, despite the suburbs only accounting for 28 percent of the agency’s tax and fare revenues.

The disparity amounts to $4.5 billion, a Post analysis found.
hat’s enough to replace the subway’s crumbling, century-old signals with the MTA’s new computerized system on 56 miles of subway, upgrading virtually every major line in Manhattan.

The Post calculated it costs roughly $80 million per mile to install the new signals after the MTA refused to provide a figure.

“[The subway] is the lifeblood of the city and state’s economy and tax base,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “It is suffering following decades of disinvestment and desperately needs to be modernized.”

All told, the MTA allocated $50.9 billion for subway, bus and commuter railroad projects between 2010-2019, not counting Hurricane Sandy repairs, according to data from the Citizens Budget Commission. More than half, $29.8 billion, came in the last five years.

The New York real-estate industry is launching a frontal assault against a plan in Albany to impose a stiff annual tax on wealthy owners of part-time homes in New York City, warning it could topple an already weak housing market.

Some in the industry also maintain that the new tax would raise far less money than the government is projecting.

John Banks, president of the industry lobbying group the Real Estate Board of New York, said it was a “bad tax that has no analysis behind it” that could have ripple effects in the city’s economy.

Since the purchase of a second home depends on sentiment rather than need, the hefty tax would lead buyers to look elsewhere, brokers say. That could put architects and construction workers out of work.

The real-estate industry isn’t the only one urging caution. Citizens Budget Commission, a civic group, has urged the state to take more time to study potential impact of the measure before acting.

With a state budget due April 1 and several major question marks hanging over negotiations between Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli gave his latest assessment of New York’s economic outlook and key aspects of the budget picture. Appearing on WBAI radio’s Max & Murphy show on Wednesday, DiNapoli reiterated the concern over dips in state revenue, which he and Cuomo have attributed to impact from the new federal tax code and related taxpayer behavior.

The state’s chief fiscal watchdog also said more data is essential before making any final declarations, acknowledging that everyone will know a lot more once most of the tax returns are in next month. Yet, amid more uncertainty than in recent years state leaders must craft a new budget well before the April 15 tax deadline, a fact that has prompted some, including Cuomo, to revisit the notion of moving the state fiscal year to start in June or July, something DiNapoli said is worth taking a serious look at.

The question of how Cuomo and legislators will raise new revenue and cautiously budget based on the projected revenue forecast will continue to be essential to budget negotiations over the next two weeks or so.

On the always contentious topic of education aid from the state to localities, DiNapoli said agreement is often challenging because “what is equitable very much sits with the eye of the beholder.” He said it is indeed worth considering recommendations from the Citizens Budget Commission and like-minded experts who say that the state should not continually increase aid to all local school districts, but only target aid to the neediest districts.

In its first year behind the wheel of the budget bus, the all-Democratic state Legislature is not keeping its eyes on the winding road.

As tax revenues are taking a dive, the predictable result of a federal tax law that’s walloping high-tax states like ours, both the Assembly and Senate have put out financial plans too rich for taxpayers’ blood.

Both would hike aid on education by 6% to $28.4 billion, going more than $600 million above Gov. Cuomo’s executive budget increase of $1 billion on the single biggest thing the state spends money on.

This, despite overall school spending that’s already risen by 41%, or twice the rate of inflation, over the past decade, to a tops-in-the-nation per-pupil average of more than $25,000.

As a Citizens Budget Commission analysis points out, focusing $164 million in new aid on 32 low-wealth districts with students in need and/or growing enrollment would help kids — without throwing ever more money at districts that don’t need it.

Democrats, now in full control of state government, revealed their top priority this week: rank politics — consequences be damned.

That’s clear from two proposals in the Legislature’s one-house budget bills: one to extend “prevailing wage” laws to private construction projects that get public incentives; the other to create a “pied-à-terre” tax in the city. Both spell trouble.

Naked politics is also behind the sudden enthusiasm for a pied-à-terre tax. After all, it’s aimed at people who don’t live in the city, but only visit — and so don’t vote here. What New Yorker would object to a tax on wealthy out-of-towners?

Well, first off: Just as with the “congestion” tolls proposed for Manhattan, this is the state grabbing revenue that should belong to the city, like other property taxes.

Well, first off: Just as with the “congestion” tolls proposed for Manhattan, this is the state grabbing revenue that should belong to the city, like other property taxes.

A proposed pied-à-terre tax on wealthy, largely absent owners of high-end co-ops and condos has been gaining political momentum, including the endorsement of Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Legislation now before both chambers of the state Legislature calls for imposing an annual surcharge of 0.5 percent to 4 percent on the market value of residences worth $5 million or more. It’s estimated that such a tax would generate $9 billion over the next decade toward fixing New York City’s broken subway system – which those wealthy, largely absent owners of luxury real estate rarely use.

Now comes the pushback to the rising chorus of “Soak the rich,” Crain’s reports. The fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) has joined forces with the Real Estate Board of New York to try to derail the locomotive of support for the tax, which is likely to be part of the state budget due April 1.

"The property tax should be levied based on the characteristics of the property, not its ownership," the CBC argues in a blog post. "A pied-à-terre tax is not a substitute for real property tax reform that increases equity."

The group worries that the levy would further weaken the enervated luxury housing market and deter rich, part-time New Yorkers who contribute to the economy in other ways. Also troubling to the commission was Cuomo's suggestion that the state allocate the tax's revenues to the MTA. This fails to address the vast bureaucratic and labor inefficiencies that bloat the authority's costs, the CDC says, and it would set a precedent for using "piecemeal" cash-gathering approaches to fund the system instead of receipts from sources directly connected to commuters and transit.

The number of earners in New York making $1 million or more fell slightly in 2016 as state leaders are growing increasingly concerned about the rich leaving for lower-tax states.

The 2.4 percent drop between 2015 and 2016, the latest years available, meant New York had about 1,100 fewer million-dollar earners than it did in 2015, down from 47,136 to 46,024.

While the state didn't express alarm over the dip, the decline goes to a larger point that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has raised in recent months about wealthy New Yorkers potentially leaving because of federal laws that cap tax deductions and hurt high-tax states.

But some groups warned that too could drive more rich people from investing in New York.
The super rich might take another hit in New York this year. The state is considering a pied-à-terre tax that would put a property-tax surcharge on nonresident owners of homes worth more than $5 million in New York City.

The money raised, estimated at about $650 million a year, would help fund the city's transit system.

"Lawmakers should seriously consider lower tax rates that will do less harm to the attractiveness of New York City," said the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed think tank.

A proposed pied-à-terre tax might be on solid footing politically, but its underlying logic is slipshod, a fiscally conservative advocacy group argued Wednesday.

The Citizens Budget Commission sought to slow the sudden political momentum behind a proposed excise on "foot on the ground" housing—residences belonging to foreigners and Americans who live (and pay taxes) elsewhere. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office suggested last week that such a levy might reap $9 billion for the moribund Metropolitan Transportation Authority over the next decade and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie reiterated his chamber's support proposal at a Crain's breakfast forum days later. For what it's worth, Mayor Bill de Blasio gave it his blessing as well.

Legislation in both chambers of the state Legislature calls for imposing an annual surcharge of 0.5% to 4% on the market value of residences worth $5 million or more. Hastily organized opposition including the Citizens Budget Commission and the Real Estate Board of New York has sprung up to head off passage of the tax, which is likely to be part of the state budget due April 1.

Nothing draws to mind the MTA’s myriad systemic problems — or the darker days of New York City’s bankrupt past — like the Woodside-61st Street Station, where the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road intersect in a towering multilevel hub of decaying steel.

The 2015-2019 Capital Plan lists the station as being in a state of good repair with $34.8 million committed to different projects at station during those years which included an “upgrade to central electronics,” which also listed the station as under a state of good repair.

However, in 2015, the 61st Street station made a 2015 list by the Citizens Budget Commission detailing subway stops in the most deteriorated states placing Woodside at a state of good repair rate of 64 percent after citing data from the MTA. But with 33 stations total making the list, 61st Street was not the worst or the best with Nevins Street in the Bronx falling dead last and 52nd Street, neighboring Woodside, come in at the top of the list.

The CBC invoked the Greek myth of Sisyphus when acknowledging the daunting task of bringing even the worst of the 472 stations across the entire system back into a state of good repair by mentioning that the agency can only tackle so many stations in one capital plan.

It’s budget time in Albany.

Lawmakers have certain programs they want funded. So where are they finding the money?

A new tax here, a new tax there, or is spending less the answer? CBS2’s Marcia Kramer went to ask the governor about how he’s weighing those options.

As New York lawmakers get ready to pass a new budget, there are two sobering facts they should consider. First, 1 million people have moved to other states since 2010. Second, according to the Tax Foundation, New Yorkers paid the highest rate of combined income and sales tax than any state in the nation last year.
“New York state does spend too much,” said David Friedfel of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Friedfel has a list of ways to save money, starting with school aid. He said the state could maintain a sound basic education by simply cutting the rate of increased aid from $1 billion to $164 million. He claims school districts already have the money they need because since 2007, “total education spending in the state has gone up by 40 percent or $20 billion,” he said.

He also suggests not spending $500 million in unallocated economic development grants and eliminating the $420 million film tax credit.

With just a little over two weeks to go before the state budget is due, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top budget officials say they have to revise their spending proposal, now that President Donald Trump has released a budget plan that they say could devastate New York’s health care system.

They’re pressuring the Legislature to rein in their spending proposals as well.

In a briefing with reporters, Cuomo’s budget director, Robert Mujica, said his staff stayed up all night crunching the numbers from the president’s budget proposal. They concluded that if Congress approves the spending plan, it would cut federal health care funding for New York by 20 percent, or $11.5 billion, over the next 10 years.

The governor’s aides said they believe that the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives will push back against the president’s proposed cuts, but they said if even if a fraction of the reductions go through, they will be damaging.

David Friedfel with the watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission said there’s reason to be concerned over the president’s proposed cuts. But he said the likelihood of Congress actually approving all the changes is “pretty minimal.”

“They’re certainly not totally wrong on the fact that the state should be concerned about what’s going to happen in the state’s economy and what impact that will have on the state’s revenues,” Friedfel said.

The Senate and Assembly budgets are often viewed as “wish lists” for members eager to claim credit for projects popular with their constituents. But Friedfel said the proposals are a serious indication of the Legislature’s priorities.

“Frequently, this is a blueprint for what they are going to be pushing for,” he said.

He said in past years, the governor has given in and agreed to compromise to include more spending in the final budget.

The Cuomo administration said Wednesday that the newly proposed federal budget would cut $4.3 billion in funding to New York and force a revamping of the state’s own proposed budget, just a day after the Legislature sought more spending.

President Donald Trump proposed on Monday his $4.7 trillion federal budget, which in part cuts funding to states for Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. More than 20 percent of Medicaid funding to New York would be cut, according to the Cuomo administration.

Whether the fear will be borne out, however, is unknown. Past attempts at including the cuts in other nonbinding “skinny budgets” failed, even when Republicans controlled the House and Senate in Washington. The chances will be more remote in the House of Representatives, now in Democratic control.

“The changes may not be that likely, but the impacts would be really significant if they did happen,” said David Friedfel, director of state studies for the independent Citizens Budget Commission. “There are real risks of an economic recession which, in and of themselves, are reasons to re-evaluate the governor’s proposal and look at the legislative proposals with skepticism or concern about their spending levels.”