In the late-hour, last-minute haggling that often defines New York’s state budget negotiations, Gov. Andrew Cuomo slipped in a sweetener for unions: the ability for unions to deduct dues from their state personal income taxes.
“Out of the clear blue sky, a provision making labor union dues fully deductible for state personal income tax purposes was inserted in New York’s final fiscal 2018 budget deal,” according to the Empire Center for Public Policy’s EJ McMahon.
According to McMahon, the benefits of the change in state tax law will likely by union workers who earn more than $100,000. The average tax savings for these union workers will be $67.
“Think of it as dinner and a movie, on the taxpayers’ dime, flowing principally to some of America’s best-paid public employees,” McMahon writes. “Not incidentally, it’s also an indirect subsidy for the state’s most politically powerful unions.”
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