New York's tax structure could be entirely rewritten in the coming weeks as Governor Andrew Cuomo pushes for a potential payroll tax to replace the personal income tax. The speed to do this, however, is being questioned.

"That's a big question. I don't know if we have the answer," said Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. "Obviously, the governor has people working on it, but the legislature hasn't weighed in yet."

The payroll tax push comes as a way of working around a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions in the federal tax law passed last month. Cuomo is expected to unveil a proposed payroll tax and changes to charitable deductions in budget amendments in February.

"We have to do something," DiNapoli said. "Whether that's the right strategy and which of those options is the right strategy, that's what the deliberations are going on right now."

And while the legislature is yet to formally back a specific payroll tax, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said it's unlikely any deal can be reached in the near future. And Republican lawmakers are skeptical.

"When you're talking about augmenting existing taxes with new taxes, that's a problem in a state where we continue to see people on an outward migration," said Sen. Joe Griffo (R - Rome).

The State Senate last week, meanwhile, sought to cushion the blow of the federal tax law with a bill that reconciles the state code with the changes in Washington. It's a one-time change that saves New York taxpayers $1.5 billion.

"The division of budget says they have some ideas they want to discuss. We're open to it as long as we find ways to make sure money is being put back into taxpayers' pockets and not being kept at the governmental level," Griffo said.

The bill allows taxpayers to deduct the full payment of their property taxes and changes the state tax code reference to the federal tax code to reflect the code that was in effect prior to Dec. 1 of last year -- effectively a reset button.

"We haven't weighed in on how to do it, but obviously reconciling New York's tax code with the federal and how you decouple, that's obviously going to be a big part of the negotiations," DiNapoli said.

The budget is due March 31.