Middle Class Tax Breaks, Expanded Capacity At NY Attractions

LONG ISLAND, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday announced tax breaks for the middle class and expanded capacity for museums, zoos and indoor arenas.

Beginning April 26, museum and zoo capacity will be raised to 50 percent, while movie theater capacity will be raised to 33 percent. Indoor large arena capacity will be upped to 25 percent on May 19 in advance of the NBA playoffs, Cuomo said.

The governor on Monday said the statewide coronavirus positivity rate stood at 2.9 percent, while 44 deaths and 3,700 hospitalizations were reported.

The positivity rate is lowest since Nov. 13. "We're back to where we were before we hit the holiday increase," Cuomo said, adding that hospitalizations are at the lowest level since Dec. 4.

As the state continues to focus on keeping the COVID-19 rate down and increasing the vaccination distribution effort, Cuomo said it is critical to rebuild the economy through infrastructure projects, public safety reform, affordable internet for those struggling and green energy initiatives.

Cuomo on Monday signed legislation aimed at lowering income tax rates for the middle class.

Income tax rates, he said, will be reduced from 6.09 percent to 5.97 percent for taxpayers filing jointly in the $43,000 to $161,550 income bracket and from 6.41 percent to 6.33 percent for taxpayers filing jointly in the $161,550 to $323,200 income bracket. Those new rates will save 4.8 million middle-class residents more than $2.2 billion this year, Cuomo said.

Also on Monday, a middle class property tax credit was unveiled that will provide more than $382 million in savings for 1.1 million homeowners with incomes up to $250,000, Cuomo said. Those savings come after a permanent property tax cap that has already saved residents $58.8 billion in the past nine years, Cuomo said.

Property taxes on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley are among the highest nationwide, he added.

Cuomo called on Congress to repeal the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which eliminated full deductibility of state and local taxes, or SALT. That legislation put a cap on maximum SALT deductions at $10,000, when "most New Yorkers have deductions twice that," Cuomo said.

Cuomo said former President Donald Trump "took from Democratic states."

"That is not a partisan statement. That is mathematics," the governor said. "The SALT assault cost New Yorkers $30 billion," to the tune of $2,600 per home in New York.

"Because of SALT, in 2017, New York had the largest tax hike of any state in the nation — that's why it was personal and devastating."