Assemblyman Matt Simpson (R,C-Adirondack) responded to the state’s mid-year cash report showing state tax collections running $7.3 billion above projections and $8.6 billion higher than the same period last year.

“While Albany celebrates record revenue, families and businesses across the North Country are still paying the price,” said Simpson. “A million New Yorkers have left the state this decade because they can no longer afford to live here. Six months ago, when we pushed for a temporary suspension of the state taxes on gasoline and diesel, the governor and the Majority shelved it. Now they are pointing to higher tax collections with nothing to show for the taxpayers, small businesses or consumers who are paying more in sales tax than ever before each time they fill up or buy groceries.”

Simpson noted that state fuel taxes do not stay at the pump. They are built into trucking and shipping rates and appear as surcharges on goods across every sector of the economy.

“The money is there,” Simpson said. “The question is whether Albany is willing to send any of it back to the people who are still struggling, or whether they will keep collecting it and calling the result a success.”