Despite the state having a higher GDP than entire nations like Sweden, New Yorkers have seen diminished spending power in recent years, owing to exceptional housing costs as the gap between wages and inflation widens. Meanwhile, as of 2022, the top 1.5% of earners earned 30% of all income earned in the state, and income inequality has worsened since 2019 as the number of millionaires and high earners grow.

The Assembly’s analysis shows the number of millionaires grew by 21.1%, from 69,688 in 2020 to 90,579 in 2021. And every county but two had millionaires: New York county leads with over 26,00 millionaires, followed by Westchester at over 11,000, Nassau at over 8,000, Kings and Suffolk at over 5,000. The reason we have a surplus of $3.5 billion this year – $3 billion of which will pay for the Governor’s “inflation refund” proposal – is precisely because of the modest tax increases on the rich and corporate profits in 2021, and because corporate profits and opportunities for high-earners continue to grow even as middle-wage jobs continue to shrink.

However, not having anticipated this surplus because of unnecessarily conservative revenue forecasts means that instead of spending it on long-term programs that continually improve the lives of New Yorkers, we’ll be spending it on one-time expenses. In this year’s budget, we must correct the course by including many of the Assembly’s proposals – beginning with the modest proposals to further tax millionaires and large corporate profits, so that in the coming years, we can implement programs New Yorkers deserve, such as: establishing a truly universal childcare program, investing significantly in the greening of public schools to make them the models of green infrastructure, investing in statewide public transit that is affordable and reliable, stabilizing our healthcare system, creating a green social housing authority to build permanently affordable homes with union labor, making SUNYs and CUNYs free, extending the coverage of unemployment insurance towards universality, protecting ourselves from the severe disruptions caused by climate change, and more.