No InFatuation With Gov's Tax Plan

More and more it appears as if New Yorkers aren't infatuated with Governor Paterson's tax plan. As the NY Daily News reported last week: "Tax the rich, not the soda! New Yorkers overwhelmingly oppose Gov. Paterson's so-called obesity tax on soda and other non-nutritional drinks, a new poll shows. The Quinnipiac University poll found that 60% of those surveyed oppose the proposed 18% tax, with just 37% supporting it."

What's fascinating about this, is the fact that the tax is opposed by those who aren't even soda drinkers: "Even those who prefer diet soft drinks, which would not be subject to the tax, say it is all wet by a 58% to 39% margin, the poll found. The fierce opposition runs across the political spectrum. "Voters aren't swallowing the proposal to tax non-diet soft drinks," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said Wednesday when releasing poll results."

And overall, the plan gets a considerable thumbs down from a great many. As the NY Post pointed out: "New Yorkers are turning thumbs down on Gov. Paterson's tax-and-slash budget plan and they're overwhelmingly opposed to his "fat tax" on non-diet soft drinks, a new poll shows. The Quinnipiac University survey found 46 percent of voters opposed to the governor's proposed $121 billion budget - with 137 new taxes and fees and billions of dollars in spending cuts - and 40 percent in favor."

We should also remember that the Q-Poll also highlighted the fact that New Yorkers preferred service cuts to new taxes. As the News related: "Still, by a 53% to 36% margin, New Yorkers would rather cut services than raise taxes." And we wonder what the response would have been to cutting the size of government and eliminating wasteful programs, versus raising taxes?

That's an approach we need to see the governor propose-before he taxes the earth, the sea and the sky. If he doesn't, we see a serious challenge to Paterson emerging in 2010.