Malcolm Smith promised us a new day in Albany if the Senate would turn to the Democrats' control. So far, not much has changed in the way of reform, save for a committee to look into reform. Now the most immediate item of importance is the budget and how to solve the gap. Unfortunately, the Senate Majority Leader cannot even rise to the level of Speaker Silver over in the Assembly when it comes to the millionaire's tax.
Here's what he thinks of that idea:
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said today that higher income taxes on the wealthy to help close the state’s $13 billion budget gap “would be the last resort. I think we can look at other things before we get there.”
Boy that sounds a lot like what Governor Paterson has said about that proposal. However I think he parts ways with the Governor after that, most likely by not cutting as much from the budget and either taking out loans or praying that the Federal government will bail us out completely. Smith clearly wants to have his cake and eat it too, by not offending anyone, though when push comes to shove, he'll ultimately agree to cut more programs than tax additions.
Of course, we could just make the income tax progressive...but hey, we wouldn't want to actually make that "shared sacrifice" rhetoric into reality, would we?
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