Unshackle Upstate took a stand today against several budget provisions that, if enacted, will further increase state debt and burden New Yorkers with more taxes, fees and assessments.

Today's announcement represents the first step in Unshackle Upstate's Judgment Day campaign - a comprehensive effort launched last month to monitor the actions of the Legislature and report back to voters across New York. The coalition is tracking whether lawmakers are supporting the coalition's drumbeat of reduced spending, taxes, fees, assessments and debt. If not, the coalition will call on New Yorkers to vote them out of
office on Nov. 2, Judgment Day.

"April is almost here, and the budget is due. But New Yorkers are seeing very little urgency from our elected leaders to cut spending and taxes," said Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate. "The positions we are releasing today represent 25 percent of the total score of our Judgment Day Scorecard. If our state representatives decide to support anti-taxpayer legislation, like the majority of the Legislature did last year, we will not only withdraw our support for them, but make our vehement opposition crystal clear to their constituents."

Unshackle Upstate opposes the following 2010-11 budgetary provisions:

• 2010-11 Executive Budget (Spending) - the 2010-11 state budget proposal is $134 billion; that's an increase of 12 percent in two years.
• The 3-percent severance tax on natural gas from Marcellus or Utica Shale. (S6610 / A9710 - Part A).
• Establishment of a circuit breaker tax credit and a state spending cap, versus a property tax cap tied directly to CPI. (S6610 /A9710 - Part Q).
• Forcing non-union home-based childcare providers to pay union dues. (S.6607/A.9707 - Part DD).
• Proposed Increase in Local Utility Taxes (GRT) (S6606/A9706 - Part HH).
• Excessive health care taxes, fees and assessments (S.6608/A.9708 - Part B, C, D).
• Continuation of the Waste Tire Management Fee, which was scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2010. (S6609 / A9709 - Part DD).

In addition, Unshackle Upstate supports the repeal of the following onerous budget provisions enacted last year:

• Repeal of $10 license plate fee increase.
• Repeal Utility Surcharge (Section 18-A) of the Public Service Law, which raised utility fees from one-third of a percent to two percent, a six-fold increase, for most taxpayers.

The Judgment Day Scorecard tallies legislator actions based on specific criteria: floor votes, committee votes, sponsorship of legislation, advocacy efforts and votes taken on the 2010-11 state budget. The Scorecard will be updated frequently and include Unshackle Upstate's legislative priorities, and it will calculate the elected official's stance on anti-taxpayer legislation. The final compilation of the Scorecard will be released in late spring.

The coalition has been working with members of the Legislature to develop fiscally appropriate and common sense reforms, and has recently provided a number of recommendations to address the state's excessive spending. They include reducing the 2010-11 state budget spending by $12 billion in 2010-11; and a five-year plan to reduce budgetary spending by at least $2 billion per year for the next five years.

Unshackle Upstate has long-denounced New York's entrenched culture of excessive taxing and spending and, specifically, how it is destroying New York's business climate and economy. Yet the governor's proposed budget includes $2 billion in new spending and $1.4 billion in new taxes and fees. On top of that, the state budget deficit is quickly approaching $9 billion, yet the lieutenant governor is proposing to borrow $6 billion over the next three years to cut the deficit.

"The voters of Upstate New York understand this is an extremely difficult time in New York," Sampson said. "But the toxic practice of outrageous taxing, spending and borrowing is exactly how we got to this point and is obviously not the way to get out of this dilemma. They want to see their elected officials do what they have done - tighten their belts and stop spending what you don't have. Anything less than that is simply not acceptable."

To view today's media kit, or for more information on Unshackle Upstate or the Judgment Day campaign, please visit www.unshackleupstate.com.