Community/Labor Groups and #OccupyWallStreet March on City’s Billionaires

Yesterday, the Coalition for the Homeless joined hundreds of people from community organizations, unions, and Occupy Wall Street on a tour of the homes of some of New York’s billionaires. Rupert Murdoch, David Koch, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon were among those visited (all conveniently located on the Upper East Side).

They were paid a visit because at the end of this year, the State millionaire’s tax is set to expire, essentially giving New York’s wealthiest a major tax break, while income inequality is at the highest level since the Great Depression and services for New York’s most vulnerable citizens are being cut left and right. So far, Governor Cuomo has expressed no willingness to renew the millionaire’s tax.

While we didn’t get to see the insides of their apartments, we did make our message known on the streets and outside their buildings: Now is not the time for billionaires and millionaires to be getting a tax break, while the rest of New York is suffering under service cuts to homeless kids, increased hunger and poverty, teacher layoffs, and massive unemployment.

Coalition for the Homeless will continue to push the Governor and the State to renew the millionaire’s tax and implement fair-share fiscal policies that benefit all New Yorkers, including our most vulnerable.