Listening to Gov. Andrew Cuomo now on the Fred Dicker Talk 1300 show, he's bobbing and weaving about today's Wall Street Journal story (Google "Cuomo eyes tax rates by Jacob Gershman" to get around the pay wall) which suggests he is now open to higher tax rates on the wealthy. Cuomo did indicate he's talking about next year's budget, although the current millionaire's tax is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. While it would be preferable not to cut taxes then have to raise them again, Cuomo's move toward a new position still looks like a giant advance toward rational and equitable tax policy -- and Senate Republicans have been sending signals that they are open toward moving in the same direction. Obviously this is driven by a lot more than Occupy Albany, but it's still shaping up as a big victory for the Occupy movement.
Update: Cuomo still yakking, I guess he's taking the full hour without commercials. He confirms he is considering using private-sector union pension funds (i.e. construction trades) to finance construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson. Since you know any new bridge here will be built by union workers anyway with a project labor agreement, the financing sounds like a reasonable idea. But this all sounds like a big move to the left on economic issues by the governor. OK, gov is off and they've gone to commercials at 10:50.
Yea well given the guv's pretty strident opposition so far, I'll believe it when I see it.
Additionally, I'd be curious what signals Senate Republicans "have been sending" that lead you to believe they might budge on this too.
Posted by: Brian | December 02, 2011 at 02:37 PM
Here's a recent article on the Senate Republicans
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/144358/37/Senate-Republicans-May-Warm-To-Cuomos-Tax-Code-Changes-
And the deputy leader, Sen. Tom Libous (not mentioned in this story) has for some time made similar noises about being open to maintaining higher taxes on wealthy.
Posted by: Bob Conner | December 03, 2011 at 10:33 AM