Gay marriage battle rages as N.Y. senators debate taxes and rent

New York (CNN) -- A day after state lawmakers were due to head home, a pair of controversial issues seem to stubbornly postpone their summer recess.

The first is something that many call a quintessential New York battle: Whether to enact the first statewide cap on property taxes. The cap is linked to the extension of rent control laws that apply to roughly 1 million apartments, most of them in New York City.

The second is the subject of national debate: Should New York become the sixth state in the union to adopt same-sex marriage laws?

Monday was technically the last official day of the legislative session, but the votes are still pending.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said lawmakers had reached a "framework for an agreement" on the rent and tax issues, but acknowledged that same-same sex marriage was not a part of those deliberations.

The Senate has struggled to bring to the floor a bill that would legalize the unions, but separate talks continued Tuesday, according to a spokesman for Skelos.

A vote on the measure, which the state Assembly passed Wednesday night, has been stalled in part by Republican concerns over protections for religious institutions against the potential for litigation in the wake of the proposed law.

Republicans, led by Skelos, have expressed concerns over the "unintended consequences" of a bill that redefines the legal parameters of marriage.

On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators filled the state Capitol in Albany in anticipation of the vote, chanting slogans and wielding signs for and against the controversial measure.

At last public count, 31 senators, including two Republicans, were in favor of the bill. Its backers need one more GOP member to vote in favor for it to pass.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who proposed the bill, says it would grant same-sex couples equal rights to marry "as well as hundreds of rights, benefits and protections that are currently limited to married couples of the opposite sex."

The first-term governor has lobbied opposition and undecided senators in an effort to secure the lone vote needed for the bill's passage.

Meanwhile, Greg Ball -- one of several Republican senators who are considered on the fence over the pending vote -- reiterated his party's concerns about the legislation's potential impact on religious institutions.

"I'm not going to vote for a bill where Catholic adoption agencies or religious organizations are shut down or are opened up to lawsuits," he said Friday, noting that adoption agencies were closed after same-sex marriage laws were adopted in other states. He declined to elaborate.

Democrat Tom Duane, an openly gay member of the state Senate, countered Friday that there are "already laws on the books in New York state which protect people of faith."

"Marriage is a civil right. People get married, and it is recognized in government," he said. "We're talking about the government recognizing same-sex equality."

But the passage of same-sex marriage laws faces a daunting history in the New York state legislature.

The Senate rejected a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in 2009 and has blocked the last three attempts by the state's lower house to get the proposed legislation signed into law.

Although New York currently does not grant same-sex marriages, a 2008 appellate court ruling upheld the right of couples to have their same-sex marriages recognized if they are performed elsewhere.

The current measure would amend the state's Domestic Relations Law to say, among other changes, that "no application for a marriage license shall be denied on the ground that the parties are of the same or a different sex."

Five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire -- and the District of Columbia currently grant same-sex marriage licenses.

CNN's Dana Garrett contributed to this report.

CNN

Deficit-reduction talks sidestep Medicare, taxes

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday to focus initially on areas of potential compromise — rather than overhauling Medicare or raising taxes — as they seek to reduce a $1.4 trillion budget deficit and slow the growth of the $14.3 trillion national debt.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor looks on as Vice President Joe Biden meets with congressional Republicans and Democrats in hopes of striking a deal on deficit reduction Thursday.

Both sides came away from a meeting led by Vice President Biden encouraged that common ground exists in the areas of less controversial spending cuts and rules to lock in savings. "We made progress," Biden said.

They will meet again Tuesday, when the specific subject on the table will be potential areas of agreement. That's in contrast to the rhetoric of the past month, when President Obama lashed out at Republicans' plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program and Republicans belittled Obama's plan as cutting too little and raising taxes too much.

"I think today's meeting really was in contrast to the rhetoric that we've heard before," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. "Without attacking anyone's plan, we're looking to find areas on which we agree."

House Budget Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., echoed that sentiment. "Everybody is trying to reach a serious, credible agreement," he said.

Biden and the six lawmakers representing House and Senate leaders face two deadlines:

•The nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit will be reached this month, and extraordinary measures by the Treasury Department will avoid a government default before early August.

Republicans say they won't allow more borrowing without action on the deficit — spending caps and additional cuts.

•Any further effort to control the nation's long-term debt will have to be done before Congress adjourns this year, because neither side expects action during the 2012 election year.

Republicans have said they don't expect quick action on their Medicare overhaul. That was made clear Thursday when 50 Democratic senators wrote Obama in opposition to the Medicare plan, guaranteeing it won't pass the Senate.

"The reality is this president has excoriated our budget plan and the Medicare proposal in the plan," Cantor said.

In turn, Republicans say, Democrats should stop trying to raise taxes. Obama's plan calls for raising tax rates on upper-income Americans and eliminating tax breaks enjoyed by powerful industries.

"Nothing is off the table except for raising taxes," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

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Obamas Earned $1.7M in 2010, Tax Report Shows, Paid, $453K in Federal Taxes

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported income of $1.728 million for last year, much of it from the sale of the president's pre-presidency books. They paid federal taxes totaling $453,770 after receiving a $12,334 refund.

The Obamas paid their taxes at lowered Bush-era rates, even as he campaigns to end them for households with adjusted gross incomes above $250,000 -- a category into which the first family clearly fits.

Joining the flocks of Americans filing their taxes near the end of the federal filing period, the Obamas made withholding and other payments to the Internal Revenue Service last year totaling $466,104. That was an overpayment, so they got their refund. The president and first lady reported donating $245,075 -- about 14.2 percent of their adjusted gross income -- to 36 different charities.

The largest single gift was a contribution of $131,075 to the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that offers a scholarship fund for children of soldiers who die or are disabled.

The Obamas' adjusted gross income for 2010 of $1.728 million was well below the $5.5 million they reported for the year before, both totals mostly driven by royalties from books written earlier by Obama. They included his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father" and his 2006 political book, "The Audacity of Hope."

The White House released the returns on the day that federal tax returns are due this year, although Obama signed his 1040 form last Tuesday. Michelle Obama signed the tax return on Wednesday.

They also released their Illinois income tax returns showing they paid $51,568 in state income taxes for last year.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, reported more modest earnings, a combined adjusted gross income of $379,178, on which they paid $86,626 in federal taxes for 2010. The Bidens' withholding and earlier payments came to just $79,446 -- so they had a tax bill of $7,180 to settle.

The Obamas paid 26 percent of their adjusted gross income in federal income taxes. The Bidens paid 23 percent.

The Bidens paid $14,479 in Delaware income taxes and $3,515 in Virginia income taxes. Jill Biden is an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College. The Bidens contributed $5,360 to charities.

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Taxes to Balance the Budget? Not Unless Rates Go Up 150 Percent, Study Says

Public Notice

A table by Public Notice shows how much more taxpayers would have to pay of their income in order to match current spending.

It's Tax Day, and the Washington chatter is all about whether America's top earners should be taxed more.

But, as the dim outlook from a key ratings agency showed Monday, Uncle Sam's deficit problem is deep. And if the federal government really wanted to use the tax code to close the deficit, it turns out everybody would feel the burn.

A new Tax Day study showed that if Washington wanted to balance the budget using tax increases alone, rates would have to more than double across the board -- including on the middle class -- to keep up with federal spending.

As Republicans often argue, the top tier already pays a greater percentage in taxes than all the rest. The government could extract hundreds of billions more by upping their rates, but without significant spending cuts would have to turn next to the middle brackets.

"Everyone would be looking at a tax hike if that's the answer here," Public Notice director Gretchen Hamel said.

IRS data showed that in 2008, the top 5 percent of earners -- households earning more than $160,000 -- accounted for about 59 percent of all federal income tax paid. The next 45 percent -- solidly middle-class taxpayers earning between $33,000 and $160,000 -- accounted for about 39 percent of all personal income tax paid.

The bottom 50 percent accounted for the remaining sliver of tax revenue. In fact, a Tax Policy Center study showed that 45 percent of households in the United States will pay no federal income tax for 2010.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that those households do pay taxes. 

"There are many taxes besides income taxes," he said. "Those who are paying payroll taxes, are working Americans, they very much have a stake in the system and they very much have a stake in the economic future of this country."

President Obama has said emphatically that he will not allow the tax rate on families earning more than $250,000 to remain at 35 percent after 2012, a source of contention among Republicans who say the top earners are already carrying the brunt of the "shared sacrifice." 

Meanwhile, critics warn that tax hikes will, in all likelihood, have a limited impact on the deficit -- unless they are raised beyond recognition.

The estimate from the nonpartisan Public Notice demonstrated this point. It showed that if Washington wanted to hoist tax rates to actually cover spending, the top tier rate would go from 35 to 88 percent; the middle tier from 25 to 63 percent and the lowest from 10 to 25 percent.

"You'd have to more than double taxes and you still wouldn't solve this problem," Hamel said. "And the problem is spending."

Obama is targeting his proposed increase on the top 2 percent of wage earners, casting it as a hike on millionaires and billionaires. He argues they can afford to pay a little more to help the country balance its books.

But as one might expect, virtually nobody thinks they’re taxed too little -- though the burden varies drastically across the income scale.

A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that while 57 percent of Americans describe their income tax as "fair," most think their taxes are still too high. The more an individual made, the stronger they felt on that question, the poll showed.

The Obama administration emphasizes that its deficit reduction plan leans more on spending cuts than tax increases. The administration is looking at $1 in revenue increases for every $3 in spending cuts. That's about the ratio being eyed by the "gang of six" senators working on a bipartisan compromise.

But Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a member of that group, said in an interview Sunday that the revenue increases don't have to come from tax rate hikes. Rather, he stressed that lawmakers could instead cut back on deductions and other loopholes that are costing the U.S. Treasury.

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Obama to Put Taxes on Table in Spending Plan

"April 8: President Obama poses for photographers in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington after he spoke regarding the budget and averted government shutdown after a deal was made between Republican and Democrat lawmakers." /

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