New Yorkers Overwhelmingly Support Millionaire's Tax

I wonder if Majority Leader Malcolm Smith is shocked and surprised at this, but New Yorkers want to see an additional tax on our state's millionaires (and to varying degrees people that make in upward of $250K) by a margin of four to one. Many of the other State Senators certainly get it, and are proposing bills to generate that income instead of making more spending cuts. One way the poll is being spun though is that respondents would rather see cuts than have that tax, but as with all polls, the wording of the questions make all the difference.

From The Albany Project:

Also, though New Yorkers overwhelmingly favor an modest increase in the rate paid by the wealthiest of us, they say they also would cut spending before "raising taxes".

Despite support for the Millionaires Tax, voters say 51 - 34 percent that they would rather cut state services than raise taxes.

Of course, this might have something with the way the question is posed.

41. To balance the state budget, if you had to choose, would you prefer - raising taxes or cutting government programs and services?

I'd have loved to see the question posed this way: "To balance the state budget, if you had to chose, would you prefer - cutting government programs and services or raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers?"

I suspect those numbers would look rather different.

If Quinnipiac managed to change that wording for the next poll, I am almost certain those numbers would drastically change. In fact, I'd suggest the numbers would be nearly similar to the four to one response seen for the millionaire's tax question. Now if the members of the Senate would only reflect how the people feel, then we could start moving on this most important issue concerning the budget gap.