The state of New York passed a new budget bill Tuesday night, containing a controversial sales tax on clothing. Governor Paterson himself admitted yesterday that the tax will hurt low-income citizens, but still had to be done. The tax goes into effect October 1st.
"Begrudgingly, to get the budget done, we accepted the sales tax, but it's really going to hurt low-income people," he said.
The final budget bill, passed by the Senate Tuesday night after a long day of political horse-trading, calls for a 4% state sales tax on clothing and shoe purchases of $110 or less set to begin Oct. 1.
Controller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, slammed the $136 billion spending plan as risky.
"All in all, this budget was not worth the wait," he said, noting it reeked of "dysfunction."
Nowhere was the dysfunction more apparent than in the Senate, where an upstate Democrat blocked completion of the budget for a month, with little to show for his efforts.
