When President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the only thing he knows how: unjustly go on the attack.

In response to the bill, Cuomo signed an executive order allowing New Yorkers to prepay their 2018 property taxes. It’s a smart move that could save residents money, but it’s also a solution that only works once. Cuomo has no long-term solution. Instead of attacking the federal bill, the governor must change his approach and focus on fixing Albany’s finances so he can ease the burden on his constituents.

Cuomo announced his participation in a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the tax bill, claiming it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by taxing Democrats at a higher rate than Republicans. In theory it sounds enticing, but legally speaking, it’s a hard case to make, given that everyone is still taxed in the same way under federal law.

Leonard Berman, a professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University who specializes in federal tax policy, said he’s in touch with lawyers who think the lawsuit is doomed to fail.

“From the lawyers I’ve talked to, it’s extremely unlikely that he [Cuomo] would prevail,” he said.

Not only that, but the states most affected by the bill are heavily represented by Democrats at the federal level. Of the 20 senators in the 10 states with the highest tax burdens, only one — the moderate Susan Collins of Maine — is Republican. But state and local taxes are issued by state and local governments, which senators take no part in.

Of those 10 states, four currently have Republican governors and nine have had Republican governors in the last decade. While heavily blue states tend to have higher state taxes, many of these states have had the problem of high taxation persist under Republican leadership as well, sinking Cuomo’s claim.

Wasting time on a helpless lawsuit does nothing for Cuomo in helping New York state. To find the best solution, Cuomo should simply take a look in the mirror and recognize the fact that he hasn’t driven the state off the fiscal cliff is almost entirely a matter of luck. With New York facing a $4 billion budget deficit, Cuomo must do something he hasn’t done yet: cut spending.

Cutting spending is the only way Cuomo can feasibly afford to ease the tax burden on New Yorkers, but this is obviously something he doesn’t want to do. He can’t afford to be portrayed as anything but progressive if he hopes to have a chance in his doomed-to-fail 2020 presidential campaign. But more than 1 million New Yorkers have left the state since 2010, and the cost of living in New York might have something to do with that.

Governor, forget challenging the tax bill, and forget 2020. If you don’t do anything to ease the burden of taxation on your constituents in light of the bill, you won’t have the support to make it that far.

Brandon Ross is a freshman broadcast and digital journalism major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at bross02@syr.edu.

Published on February 1, 2018 at 12:42 am