Fair Share Tax Effort Needs Your Help Now!

The chances of the state budget having a fair share tax added to it just diminished last night when the Senate met last night. Malcolm Smith has apparently decided to go with more cuts and no tax increases for the wealthy despite a large contingent of Democrats supporting the Fair Share plan. Instead, it looks like the Majority Leader is more comfortable siding with a few in his caucus and the Republican side of the aisle instead of what the people voted for overwhelmingly in the November elections. With that, the unions and all those that support less cuts to the budget are reaching out to us so that the Senate is inundated with messages to support a tax increase on the wealthy as opposed to more burdens placed on the working class.

From The Times-Union:

Dear XXXXX,
We need your urgent help!
The New York State Senate is about to vote on a budget bill that would make devastating cuts to important services our state’s families and children rely on — services like education, health care, and community services.
There’s still time to keep these cuts from happening. But we’re down to the wire and need your help to tell Democratic state senators to speak out against these cuts. It will only hurt our communities during a time when New Yorkers need to rely on services more than ever.
Please take a moment to write your state senator and urge them to support a fair solution to the budget crisis — Fair Share Tax Reform:
http://www.fairsharereform.com/senatebill
This solution would ask our state’s wealthiest taxpayers to contribute their fair share to close the state’s budget gap — so that our state’s working families don’t have to bear the brunt of the burden.
We need additional revenue to help close the state’s $14 billion budget gap — not cuts that would hurt everyone.
Write your senator now:
http://www.fairsharereform.com/senatebill
Thank you so much for your urgent help.
In solidarity,
George Gresham
President, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

As the article by Irene Jay Liu prefacing the letter states, what the Senate decides on tomorrow isn't binding, but it does set the general direction of how they want the budget to look. The important thing to note here is that if both the Assembly and the Senate have some form of tax increase on the wealthy, the compromise will look a lot better than if one chamber has only cuts and the other has the increase. So get to the Fair Share website and then call and/or email your Senator so we get a budget that is fair to all New Yorkers.