{"id":1845,"date":"2026-06-12T10:39:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:39:04","slug":"go-bold-bruce-blakeman-with-a-tax-plan-even-democrats-can-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1845","title":{"rendered":"Go bold, Bruce Blakeman \u2014 with a tax plan even Democrats can love"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New York is in an economic death spiral as companies and taxpayers flee, taking their money with them.<\/p>\n

Read more HelloFresh should take notes from Bud Light \u2014 embracing Pride typically proceeds a business freefall<\/a><\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman needs to go\u00a0bold.<\/p>\n

So far, the Republican challenger in this November\u2019s race for governor has been running a run-of-the-mill campaign, trading barbs with Gov. Kathy Hochul but advancing few big ideas. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Come on, Bruce. Offer New Yorkers real change: Roll out a concrete plan to phase out the state\u2019s personal income tax.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the economy killer.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Albany spendaholics \u2014 in both parties \u2014 will claim it can\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n

But 68% of New Yorkers, regardless of their party affiliation, support zeroing out the income tax, a Morning Consult poll found.<\/p>\n

That includes 65% of Democrats, with only 20% strongly or somewhat opposed to axing the tax.<\/p>\n

All governments need tax revenue, but taxing income is far more damaging to the economy than taxing property or sales.<\/p>\n

State income taxes cause businesses to flee to lower-tax or zero-tax states, eroding the tax base and causing brain drain.<\/p>\n

In January, the White House Council of Economic Advisors urged\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0states with income taxes to end them,\u00a0\u201cthough some combination of belt-tightening and finding less damaging forms of tax collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CEA\u2019s analysis of New York state found that terminating the tax would bring a host of benefits, on top of letting residents keep more of their paychecks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average New York wage earner would make more pre-tax \u2014 as much as an average $6,757 more yearly \u2014 and business start-ups would increase by as much as 29%.<\/p>\n

Naysayers will note that the personal income tax provides 30% of the state\u2019s massive $277 billion budget.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll ask how we can possibly fill that huge hole.<\/p>\n

The answer is there will be<\/em> no hole, if Albany adopts the strategy that several other states are currently using to eliminate their income taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works: As soon as a state announces it will get rid of its income tax, business activity picks up.<\/p>\n

Companies plan ahead, betting the change will improve their profitability.<\/p>\n

As business booms, so does overall state revenue from taxes of all kinds. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The legislation puts a hard ceiling on future state spending, setting it so as not to increase beyond current levels \u2014 that\u2019s the \u201cbelt-tightening\u201d the CEA recommends.<\/p>\n

Read more North Carolina HS valedictorian speaks out after heckling student shames his speech<\/a><\/p>\n

Oklahoma\u2019s law, for example, requires it to cut the income-tax rate every year overall state revenue increases by 5%.<\/p>\n

That means legislators have no discretion to create new government programs to spend the added bounty.<\/p>\n

And in New York, with its declining population, it\u2019s eminently reasonable to freeze spending at current levels.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a gradual, fiscally responsible way to turn New York from tax hell to tax haven, making it the economic engine of the Northeast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smart states are already going to zero.<\/p>\n

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster\u00a0signed a law in April that will take the state\u2019s current progressive income tax, with a top rate of 6%, down to zero over time.<\/p>\n

The CEA offered another option, too, calculating that states can eliminate the income tax even faster by adopting a broad-based sales tax on goods and services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In New York that would mean raising the current 4% state sales tax on goods to 8.25%, exempting groceries and rent to spare the poor.<\/p>\n

The math works fine, but these CEA economists aren\u2019t running for office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blakeman is hardly likely to propose hiking\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0taxes. Nor should he.<\/p>\n

But he can<\/em> make himself the Ron DeSantis of the Northeast by offering a vision of New York as a zero-income tax, high-growth state \u2014 Florida without the palm trees.<\/p>\n

Blakeman has already\u00a0proposed tinkering\u00a0with the state income tax, by exempting the first $50,000 earned by single filers and $100,000 by joint filers, and making an across-the-board 10% tax cut on all income under $250,000.<\/p>\n

Those are baby steps: No company is going to relocate to New York for that.<\/p>\n

The interstate competition for business has never been keener.<\/p>\n

A staggering 53% of corporate CEOs say they are \u201copen to examining new locations\u201d based on taxes and other factors.<\/p>\n

The companies evacuating New York are leaving for states with no income tax, or to states with a plan to phase it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Those states are cleaning Kathy Hochul\u2019s clock.<\/p>\n

But New York\u00a0is not doomed to economic failure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a gutsy plan like this, Blakeman can win over Democratic and independent voters, improve his odds of victory and turn New York around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more The Knicks\u2019 surreal Game 4 win is in a New York sports class of its own<\/a><\/p>\n

Go big, Bruce.<\/p>\n

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republican candidate can offer New Yorkers real change in the race for governor \u2014 with a smart strategy to responsibly eliminate the state\u2019s economy-killing income tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-betsy-mccaughey","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nGo bold, Bruce Blakeman \u2014 with a tax plan even Democrats can love - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1845\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Go bold, Bruce Blakeman \u2014 with a tax plan even Democrats can love - 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