Fair share tax plan seems ... fair

As a constant  critic of high state and local spending, expensive mandates, giveaways to unions and failed economic development policies, I guess I shouldn't be sympathetic to the soak-the-rich tax plan put out by SEIU Local 1199, the health-care workers union. But I am.
The union obviously wants to limit health-care cuts. While there is still room to trim health-care costs, some significant trimming has been done in that area in recent years, and there is more fat in education. I am also sympathetic to the kind of people who work as nursing home aides or in other positions represented by 1199. They are not underworked or overpaid.
The union's Fair Share Tax Reform makes more sense than the Assembly's soak-the-very-rich one-house bill, which would only raise taxes on those with incomes over $1 million per year. The SEIU, by contrast, would establish three new brackets, kicking in at $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million. It points out that the top state income tax rate now, of 6.85 percent, kicks in on households earning more than $40,000. That's absurdly low. The plan would establish new brackets of 8.25 percent (at $250,000), 8.97 percent (at $500,000) and 10.3 percent (at $1 million annual income), which SEIU says would raise $5 billion per year for the state. That plugs about a third of the projected budget deficit.
The politicians should add something not in the union's plan, a blanket adoption of all the recommendations from Tom Suozzi's commission on school property taxes. That would include a property tax cap, along with mandate relief and other measures to control costs. Giving the middle class a break on property taxes is especially urgent if, as Gov. Paterson proposes, STAR rebates are to be abolished. And capping their property taxes will make an income-tax hike palatable for the upper middle class.
Tax increases and spending cuts are better than using back-door borrowing and other fiscal gimmicks to pretend to balance the budget, which is what many politicians will want to do.