New Yorkers Tell Andrew "Governor 1%" Cuomo to Fight for Them, Not Just the Super-Rich

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• Flier from demonstration

NEW YORK, NY (11/01/2011)(readMedia)-- Outside Governor Andrew Cuomo's Midtown Manhattan office this afternoon, more than 200 hundred demonstrators joined the ever-expanding Occupy movement to highlight what they see as a governor's administration "occupied" by the super-wealthy 1% unwilling to pay their fair share. They began their march at Zuccotti Park.

Demonstrators voiced opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo's effort to issue a $4.5 billion dollar tax cut to New York's wealthiest millionaires. They delivered a letter signed by "The 99% of New York" calling for the governor to not issue the tax break for Manhattan's wealthiest.

Individuals from around the city and state joined together in this protest, including low-income members of Community Voices Heard from Newburgh and New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS that came as members of Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL-NY). Both of those groups are working with the New Deal for New York campaign.

"Andrew 'Governor 1%' Cuomo says keeping the millionaires tax will hurt business in this state – that's wrong and he knows it," said Bobby Tolbert, a VOCAL-NY Board member and leader from the Bronx. " Businesses will stay and new ones will open up if we have good education, good infrastructure, and strong and healthy communities. Instead, Governor 1% Cuomo is determined to give billions in tax cuts to Wall Street and pay for it by cutting jobs, schools, hospitals, senior centers and affordable housing programs."

"By giving millionaires tax breaks once again, Andrew 'Governor 1%' Cuomo is telling the majority of people that you don't care about us, our futures and our children, said Loretta Manning, a Community Voices Heard Leader from Newburgh, NY. "It is critical that you stand for the people and not against the people, show an investment in our communities by expanding a tax that has been on the books and has still not turned away businesses or millionaires from living in NYS. It's not time for tax cuts. it's time for common sense."

If Gov. Cuomo's signature tax cut stands, a family making $40,000 this year will pay the same tax rate as one that makes $40 million a year, forcing more and more service cuts on top of those that have already been leveled over the last three years of austerity.

The groups, expressing the anger of New Yorkers around the state -- more than 70% of whom oppose Cuomo's tax break for millionaires, including among wealthy and those self-identified as conservatives -- argued that Cuomo's choice to provide this billion-dollar tax cut will only exacerbate inequality in New York State. With the top 1% of households controlling 1 of every 3 dollars of all the household income in the state, New York already stands as the inequality capitol of the United States.

More information on New Deal for New York can be found at www.NewDealForNewYork.org.