The "Fat Tax" has been axed.
Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have announced that federal stimulus funds will allow them to eliminate proposals to enact or raise a series of taxes and fees covering everything from music downloads to sugar-filled drinks.
Paterson joined Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith at an Albany news conference to make the announcement on Wednesday.
"Now when many working families are losing their jobs and have lost their homes... it is essential that we do all we can to ease that tax burden, because it is working families, or in some cases former working families, that are struggling the most," said Silver.
The state leaders say the federal funding will allow them to scrap many of the dozens of taxes and fees in Paterson's mid-December budget proposal.
The new levies were supposed to raise more than $1 billion to help close a deficit.
