RAISING TAXES: Hochul has vowed to not raise income taxes on the wealthy, but that hasn’t stopped left-leaning groups and progressive lawmakers from still wanting to. The union-backed Fiscal Policy Institute in a report Friday that New York could raise $2.2 billion a year with a 1 percent income tax increase on those earning more than $1 million a year. “New York is known as a high tax state, but most high earners pay average state income taxes," Nathan Gusdorf, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. New York last added new income tax brackets for high earners in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, raising its top level to 10.9 percent for those earning more than $25 million a year. Some Democratic lawmakers have a bill to add new brackets for those earning above $450,000 a year. The flipside: Just 200 taxpayers in New York pay nearly 10 percent of all the state’s income tax, according to state records. So any move by just a few of the richest residents could significantly impact the state’s finances. As Hochul put it during her budget address Feb. 1: “We will not be raising income taxes after we just expedited middle class tax cuts a year ago. Because it's not a news flash that New Yorkers already believe they pay too much.” — Joseph Spector JACOBS ON JACOBS: State Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs continued Friday to rebut calls for his ouster after a lackluster election performance that was highlighted by Republicans sweeping four House seats on Long Island, his home turf. Jacobs said his detractors, mainly the left wing of the party, aren’t giving him credit for the party’s successes: It won all statewide seats again, a streak that stretches to 2002, and won supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly. “I don't have anything to do with any of the wins, I'm only fully responsible for the four losses. So, c’mon,” he deadpanned to Brian Lehrer on WNYC radio, adding the state party spent $6 million to help candidates last November. — Joseph Spector EDUCATION: The Department of Education has extended the deadline for families to apply to 3K to Monday. Nathaniel Styer, the DOE’s press secretary, said they received feedback from parents that they needed some more time and that applications are up compared to last year, and that application numbers will be available once applications close. "We’re getting also feedback from parents that the site is not parent-friendly and some of these people are tech savvy and they’re like, ‘Council member, we still have a hard time navigating this,'" City Council education chair Rita Joseph said, referring to the site to the enrollment site for 3K. "So for them to expand it for more people to apply, that’s a good sign, that’s an excellent sign.” She added that if the need is there and they have the numbers, they will "have to redirect funds to the program." Styer said they do have the funds for the seats. In November, the Adams administration said the city would reallocate $568 million in federal stimulus funding earmarked for 3K expansion. At the time, a DOE official said current 3K funding levels would stay constant. — Madina Touré RENT BOARD: Adams has appointed Nestor Davidson, a housing and land use professor at Fordham Law School, to be the new chair of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board. The board determines annually whether and by how much to raise rents on the city’s nearly 1 million rent-regulated apartments. Adams, in a statement, said Davidson “brings the experience and expertise New Yorkers deserve in a leader at the Rent Guidelines Board. I am confident he will be a faithful steward of our city’s rent stabilized housing stock while rooting his decisions in facts and data.” Last year, in the first board vote under Adams, the body approved the highest increase in nearly a decade. — Janaki Chadha
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