Will the Elite Pay Their Fair Share?

New York, home to the wealthiest people in human history, is now facing a major budget problem, forcing the new Gov. David Paterson to decide whether to gut health care and social services for the poor, or raise taxes on people making over $10 million a year. Here's an excerpt from the New York Sun [1]:

That leaves Mr. Paterson with the option of closing the gap by raising taxes, a move that already has broad support within the Democratic-led Assembly, some of whose members have suggested that New York more than double the personal income rate to 13.85% for those earning more than $10 million a year.

"The Assembly's position is that the wealthiest citizens can afford to get us through this crisis, and we're hoping the governor comes our way," a Democratic assemblyman of Westchester, Richard Brodsky, said.

Advocates of a tax increase on the state's wealthiest earners say sentiment in favor of such a move will only grow if Mr. Paterson proposes cuts to state services, public sector layoffs, or other austere measures.

"People like libraries, roads, museums, hospitals, sports teams," the executive director of an influential labor-backed political organization, the Working Families Party, Daniel Cantor, said. "It's time to ask that the 1% give back a little bit."

So who are you going to bat for, Gov. Paterson? Your state's working class, or your state's ruling class?