The Hunger Action Network of New York State said that the candidates in this week’s gubernatorial debate failed to address the regressive nature of the state’s tax system and the great income inequality in New York.

“Whenever candidates start talking about tax cuts and holding the line on taxes, low and moderate income New Yorkers instinctively grab their wallets and pocketbooks. The last thirty years of such promises invariably resulted in state tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy while spending on essential programs were either cut or shifted onto local taxpayers via higher county property and sales taxes. The end result is that the poorest New Yorkers now pay twice as much of their income for state and local taxes as the wealthy,” noted Bich Ha Pham, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network.

If New York was to go back to the state tax system of thirty years ago, 95% of the taxpayers would receive a tax cut. And the state would raise more than $7 billion in additional revenues. That illustrates how the “tax cuts” of the last three decades have mainly benefited the wealthiest New Yorkers.

In recent years, New York has had the greatest income inequality in the US, not just between the rich and the poor, but also between the rich and the middle class. While wages for most New Yorkers have either stagnated or dropped, poverty has increased. The recent census data showed that the official poverty rate statewide increased to 14.7%. New York City's poverty rate was 19.1% in 2005.  But upstate cities fare even worse: Syracuse 31.3%, Rochester 30.0%, Buffalo 26.9% and Albany 26.5%. Yet we are told that we are in the midst of the fourth year of an economic recovery. Over half the residents of Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo had incomes below 200% of the poverty threshold. And more than 10% of the residents of these cities and Albany are classified as extremely poor – with incomes less than half the poverty threshold.

“We want the next Governor to commit to ending the regressive nature of the state’s tax system. We want to hear a plan about raising the income of the working poor and finally raising welfare grants for the state’s poorest after 16 years of neglect. We want to hear about how to provide health care to all New Yorkers that will improve the quality of medical care while cutting costs to employers and consumers,” added Pham. “And while every candidate promises to create jobs, somehow our communities never benefit from the trickle down economic policies.”

Hunger Action Network also called for an overhaul in the state’s economic development program – also known as corporate welfare. “We need to go back to the system of thirty years ago where government created jobs by investing in local infrastructure and workforce development. Instead, politicians now play the game of smoke stack chasing, where no net new jobs are created but communities give away their tax dollars in a bidding game to get particular companies to relocate. We need to empower lower-income communities to decide how best to create jobs, not allow companies to force cities and counties into a high stakes poker game. The fact that New York just spent a million dollars a job to entice a computer factory to Senator Bruno’s home district should be a wakeup call that the state’s corporate welfare program is completely out of control,” added Pham.