Bay Ridge business owners like Cuomo’s tax cut proposal
Owners of small, mom and pop-type businesses in Bay Ridge expressed cautious optimism about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new proposal to lower their taxes.
Bob Howe, a lawyer who serves as president of the Merchants of Third Avenue, a group representing store owners on the avenue between 65th and 100th streets, said the plan Cuomo announced on Jan. 18 to lower the tax rate from 6.5 percent to 2.5 percent over three years sounded good to him. “It would lower our overhead. I’m in favor of anything that would allow an entrepreneur to create a business. Small businesses are the job creators in our communities,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle.
But Howe also expressed concern that the proposed tax cut would not wind up saving money for business owners because costs in other areas would rise.