NY's Cuomo wants tax-code tweak to create jobs -media

NEW YORK Dec 1 (Reuters) - New York's tax code should be revised so that it helps create jobs, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, according to media reports this week.

If that happens, the state's wealthiest residents may wind up being taxed at a higher rate.

New York, like many states, has found it much harder to balance its books because tax revenue has remained depressed due to the recession and the halting recovery that followed.

Cuomo, who is consulting with his group of private economic experts, is quoted in Thursday's edition of The Daily News:

"If you use the tax code right, it's a potent economic generator. If you use it incorrectly, you can stifle business."

The New York newspaper cited the Democratic governor's interview with Albany radio station TALK 1300 AM.

For more than a year, the Democratic-led Assembly has been pushing Cuomo and the Republican-led state Senate to extend an income-tax surcharge on millionaires that expires this year.

Cuomo has fought back, saying this risks driving people to move to lower-tax states.

But in recent weeks, Cuomo has said that no decision should be made before the facts have been assessed.

And on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal said the governor might revise the state's income tax by creating a new bracket for the wealthy, which would be slightly below the current top rate of 8.97 percent, but slightly above the previous 6.85 percent top rate.

Spokesmen for Cuomo had no immediate comment on the tax issue or on the possibility of amending the state's constitution to legalize more casinos -- an issue that resurfaced, according to Thursday's Daily News article, after it first arose this summer.

There is the possibility of asking the voters to legalize casinos by approving an amendment to the state's constitution in 2013. That referendum could go before the voters only if it was first approved by the current legislature and the one that will succeed it in the next election.

New York now limits casinos to a few Indian resorts.

Any new legalized gambling venues would have to compete not only with New Jersey's Atlantic City resorts, but with Connecticut's Native American casinos and the more recent gambling halls opened in Pennsylvania.