The people are there. Not surprisingly. If the politicians could get their hands out of the pockets of their contributors, we’d have some progress.

All the way from the Financial Times:

A poll released on Monday by Quinnipiac University found 61 per cent of registered New York City voters supported extending the state’s surcharge, which has generated $4.6bn a year since it was implemented in 2009. Even Republicans were in favour of the tax, with 55 per cent supporting an extension compared with 38 per cent in opposition. Most of the state’s residents subject to the additional tax live in the city.[emphasis added]

    We’re talking real money:

Over the three years the law has been in place, it has generated $13.8bn in revenue, according to the state’s budget estimate.

   But, the usual suspects want to state to collapse:

Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, countered that the revenue raised from such surcharges was not enough to solve the structural budget deficits facing state and local governments.

“It might numb the pain temporarily but that might be another reason for the politicians to kick the can down the road,” she said. “It won’t solve the fiscal problem the state faces and is liable to exacerbate it because people, even in that income category, feel very uncertain about their own future.”

She said the policy risked driving wealthy residents to nearby states with lower income taxes, like Connecticut[emphasis added].

   Oh, please, cry me a fucking river. The richest one person are uncertain about their future? You mean, they are agonizing about whether they can afford a 5th home, or to put Muffy into some private school?

    In case Wylde’s name rings a bell, she is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who violated ethical standards when she attacked Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, joining a campaign to try to force Schneiderman to back off his tough line against any deal with banks to settle mortgage security violations.

   And the reason the surcharge has expired? Our poodle-for-the-rich governor is on his hands and knees in service to the richest people in the state.

    You see the pattern? The politically elected whores service the rich, the rich attack any attempt to have some fairness again in the tax system with the usual lies about business running to another state (for which there is almost NO EVIDENCE) and, instead, teachers lose their jobs.