New Yorkers Crash Golf Fundraiser to Call on Cuomo & His Real Estate Buddies to Restore Fiscal Sanity

Tax break for "Cuomo's Club" of millionaires assailed by low-income grassroots leaders

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Grassroots community leaders speaking with REBNY golfers after crashing their event.

WHITE PLAINS, NY (09/12/2011)(readMedia)-- Twenty grassroots leaders from New York City and Yonkers converged on the annual golf and tennis outing hosted by the Real Estate Board of New York in Westchester County today, calling on REBNY members to demand their organization no longer support Governor Cuomo's Tea Party-style budget proposals. The leaders, members of Community Voices Heard and VOCAL-NY and organizing under the banner of New Deal for New York, called on REBNY to step down from the so-called "Committee to Save New York" that is pushing for tax cuts for millionaires.

"Big money shouldn't speak louder than the people of New York when it comes to shaping Governor Cuomo's agenda, but that's what happened when the millionaire's tax was killed despite majority support across the political spectrum," said Elizabeth Owens, a VOCAL-NY leader from the Bronx.

"Don't tell me about shared sacrifice, Mr. Cuomo, when it's the people that have benefitted the most over the last 20 years – and the ones that donated to your campaign – that are getting tax breaks while those in our communities that have been falling even further behind are getting services cut," said Keith Gamble, a board member of Community Voices Heard.

The Millionaire's Tax, a surcharge on the state's highest-income households, has been on the books in recent years and raised critical funding for the state during this time of record joblessness and public disinvestment. A proposal to extend the existing surcharge passed the State Assembly last year, only to be bottlenecked in the State Senate by Majority Leader Dean Skelos and critiqued by the Governor despite overwhelming support among all cross-sections of New Yorkers. The state will lose billions in needed revenues if the tax cut for Cuomo's Club is enacted.

"REBNY and other buddies of the Governor are driving this Committee to Save New York, but to Save New York for who?" said Mr. Gamble of CVH. "They sure didn't ask me. Did they ask you?"

"By pushing through billions in tax cuts for themselves at a time when too many New Yorkers are struggling to find work, keep their home and get their kids a good education," continued Ms. Owens of VOCAL-NY, "the landlord lobby and their allies in Committee to Scam New York put this state deeper into crisis. If they want to starve our communities, then we're going to show up in theirs."

Handouts distributed by the group criticized The Committee to Save New York, a coalition of real estate, finance, and other businesses that raised more than $10 million to support the budget cuts pushed by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this year.

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