State officials have said that a sluggish economic recovery is unlikely to produce $3.7 billion in revenue Brown built into the current budget. A shortfall of that size would trigger automatic mid-year spending cuts to schools, universities, social services and public safety.
"I am going directly to the voters because I don't want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year," the governor said in a statement.
Cuomo's plan would create multiple brackets with rates increasing on a graduated basis and indexed to inflation, he said. Brackets would be added for middle- and high-income earners, and rates would span several percentage points from high to low.
Cuomo, who closed a $10 billion deficit this year, supports letting his state's so-called millionaire's tax lapse, which prompted the Occupy Wall Street protest movement to deride him as "Governor 1 Percent."
In Washington state, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, seeking to close a $2 billion deficit, last month asked the Legislature to let voters decide on a 0.5 percentage point increase in the state sales tax, to 7 percent, to help avert cuts that would shorten the school year and reduce support for colleges.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, a nonpartisan sampler of opinion in California, said surveys have shown that voters support higher taxes on the wealthy and also so-called sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
"It's a lot easier for voters to say they are going to support a tax that isn't going to affect them, if additional monies are needed," he said