Senator Serino, it’s Time to End Your Silence on Fair-Share Tax Proposals
By Michael Zagarell
It seems these days most Republicans have never seen a tax cut for the super rich they don’t like. As a result, the rest of us are left to pay the taxes the super rich won’t pay.
They call it a tax cut, but it’s really a way of shifting the burden of taxes from the super rich to us. No wonder the wealthy are doing so well in the pandemic while so many others are suffering.
But even when a tax cut for regular people is finally proposed, the way they do it ends up saving us nothing, in many cases costing us even more. How much does a $100-a-year tax cut save us when the cuts in needed services only lead to higher prices for health care, child care, transportation and everything else?
We pay more because tax cuts also bring reductions in government services. That often forces us to buy the needed services on the private market at even higher costs. Every time we pay money to send our kids to private tutoring because classes are too large, or pay more for medicine because of Medicaid or Medicare cuts we are paying for the way those fake tax cuts were done. We are all feeling it. After decades of Republican talk about cutting taxes, our cost of living has actually increased – and so has our struggle to make ends meet.
People in the Hudson Valley are suffering right now because of COVID-19, and the economic crisis that has followed it. Many people have lost their jobs and aren’t sure where their next paycheck is coming from; others have been unable to make their mortgage payments and are in danger of losing their homes. Still others are in danger of losing their health care because they can no longer afford their insurance payments. We need the government to act.
But in the midst of all these problems what has Republican state Sen. “Silent” Sue Serino proposed to meet the crisis? Just about nothing, except more of the same fake tax cut proposals.
Decades of experience should teach us that a tax cut for regular people can’t save us money unless it is also accompanied by a tax increase for the wealthy. That way we get lower taxes for the people who need it most while still receiving the benefit of needed government services.
This is important to understand right now. Currently, there is a pile of bills being introduced in the state legislature to finally make the super rich pay their fair share of taxes. Without that, we will be hit with new service cuts, rising costs and even higher taxes. We need our elected officials to back these “fair share” tax proposals. But so far, our elected representative in the Senate, Sue Serino, has refused to endorse any of these plans? Where is Serino in this crisis?
One excuse state from state Senate Republicans in their opposition is that they are against big government. They claim tax cuts for the rich will help shrink the government. If that is really what Serino believes, she could support higher taxes on the super rich, and propose to use that money to cut OUR property taxes. That wouldn’t expand the government, but it would give money directly to regular people across the state, every month, without destroying our schools and other needed services.
In the 1950s the U.S. was a respected world leader with a large middle class. Many Republicans yearn to return to those days. But the 1950s was also a time when our country strongly taxed the wealthy, and as a result, gave a high standard of living to the middle class.
If Republicans really want to make America great again, they should pass fairness tax laws. It’s time to speak up for us!
Michael Zagarell is a Lake Peekskill resident.
