By Jeremy Walsh
New York’s elected officials are pushing for a tax cut they said would boost new jobs for small business owners throughout the state and country, but when such a measure could take effect remained unclear.
Speaking at Laguardia Community College in Long Island City Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) joined U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) to announce a proposal to cut taxes for small businesses equivalent to 20 percent of the salary of every new job they add. Large businesses would be offered a cut equivalent to 15 percent of those salaries, they said.
“It will be the quickest, most effective measure we can take right now to stimulate new job creation and it would generate just as much economic return as the investment we’re doing in other places,” Gillibrand said, estimating the measure could create several million jobs nationwide over one year. “This tax cut is just the type of jolt we need to help improve confidence, to improve the business’ ability to expand and start hiring again.”
Maloney, chairwoman of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, warned that while the number of jobs lost month to month has dropped from 750,000 in January 2009 to 85,000 in December 2009, the recession was not over yet.
“Still too many Americans are out of work and any initiative that will help create jobs is tremendously important, and this one will,” she said. “One of the last areas to recover in a recession is job creation. We are digging our way out of this recession, but we need to really work harder and faster for the thousands of American families.”
Gillibrand has asked President Barack Obama to include the tax cut as part of the larger jobs package he is working on with legislators, but neither she nor Maloney could say how long it might take for the bill to pass.
In the meantime, several small business owners in the city, who employ 50 percent of the area’s workforce, stepped up to show their support for the measure.
Manuel Sais, an office furniture designer whose company is based in Long Island City, said the two years since he opened shop have been a roller coaster, noting he hired four people in 2008 and had to lay off two of them last year.
“It was a very hard decision, but we had to make sure the business would continue,” he said, calling the bill “a great benefit for us.”
“It will allow me to focus more on what I’m good at — running the design business — and not doing the sales,” he said.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
