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State Senate passes tax overhaul

Dec 08, 2011 3:29 pm
The New York State Senate unanimously passed an income tax restructuring bill late Wednesday night after a day of closed door negotiations. The Senate voted, 55-0, to approve the tax code changes on Wednesday night, and the Assembly was poised to follow suit. The remarkably rapid progress of the tax revisions and the clandestine nature of the negotiations was criticized by some government watchdog groups. Thomas Kaplan in the New York Times describes how Cuomo has used similar tactics he describes as "stealth manuevering" to pass the same sex marriage act, a property-tax cap, a reworking of ethics rules and extensive budget cuts. The New York Public Interest Research Group said that the actual legislation — 33 pages and over 19,000 words — was posted online 26 minutes before the Senate began voting on it.