Last-Ditch Pitch Made For Millionaires

Tax in New York

WGRZ NBC 2, Gannett | March 15, 2011

Despite a day of noisy protests

at the state Capitol and support
from powerful Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver, a tax on
high-income earners faces a dim
chance of being enacted into law.

The tax, which would affect

those making more than $1
million a year, is a modification
of the surcharge currently in
place on single filers who make $200,000 or more and couples whose joint income is
$300,000 or more.

That tax is set to expire at the end of the year, a sunset date that is backed by both Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans.

And both GOP lawmakers and Cuomo, a Democrat, have been steadfast in saying they
would not accept a re-approval of the current tax or adjusting to include those with higher
incomes.
Still, liberal legislators were able to push Silver, D-Manhattan, to include a tax on
millionaires, which would bring $700 million in revenue.

Silver, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said including the tax in the budget would help
close the $10 billion deficit projected for 2011-12 and go toward reducing the hole that is
expected in 2012-13, about $2.2 billion.

"We provide the mechanism that we balance the budget this year and balance the budget
next year," Silver said.

Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County, said the
inclusion of the tax was merely a "political statement" by Silver.

"The governor said no, the Senate Republicans said no and we said no," Kolb said. "So I
don't know how it stays."
Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, rejected any
notion that the tax would be approved by his conference, even if it was linked to a long-
sought cap on property taxes.

"We're not going to support the millionaires tax increase. It's a tax increase and I'm
extremely pleased that Governor Cuomo continues to say, 'No way,'" Skelos said at a
news conference.

An attempt to pass a similar tax to the Assembly version in the Senate fizzled quickly last
week.

Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, Orange County, introduced a tax bill, but fellow GOP
lawmakers rushed to say they would not support the provision.

Business groups bitterly oppose a millionaires tax, saying it drives industry and jobs out
of the state. New Yorkers live under one of the highest tax burdens in the country,
according to the Tax Foundation.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, an activist group of about 100 protestors supporting the

millionaires tax held a noisy demonstration outside of Cuomo's second floor office in the
Capitol, demanding to speak with a top-level aide in the governor's office.

At one point, the group spotted Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy and chanted, "We want Duffy! We
want Duffy!"

The protest - which included a man wearing a mask resembling New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie - lasted for about 30 minutes before Cuomo's communications director, Richard
Bamberger, accepted a packet of information from the group.

"The people are listening and they're clear on the message," said activist Agnes Rivera.
"He (Cuomo) is calling this a budget crisis, but it's really a revenue crisis."

Cuomo was in Essex County on Tuesday and had no public schedule.

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