March 04, 2009

Teachers not thrilled with NYSUT tax hike advocacy

A soak-the-rich tax campaign backed by New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) isn't sitting too well with some of NYSUT's own members--including at least a few who find themselves on the verge of being labelled "wealthy" targets of the tax hike.

NYSUT is spending $1.5 million on a TV, radio and movie theater advertising campaign warning that proposed state budget cuts in education and health care threaten "the American dream". The solution to the $14 billion budget gap, the union says, is a "fair share" income tax hike that would raise marginal rates by 20 to 50 percent on incomes starting at $250,000.

A sampling of reaction letters sent to NYSUT's newspaper, New York Teacher, and published on the union's web page doesn't exactly reflect a groundswell of support for the tax hike. Of the eight published comments as of late Tuesday, five attacked the plan. The other three neither supported nor opposed higher taxes.

Ed Gruber of the Eastchester Teachers Association had an especially acute motivation for writing:

What you are supporting alienates part of your membership.

My wife and I are both employed as science teachers in Westchester County, and earned a gross household income in 2007 of more than $240,000. This year, we may top the $250,000 figure with step increases and extracurricular activities. Thus, NYSUT is suggesting that union teachers who worked hard to get good-paying jobs be taxed at a higher percentage than others...

Remember, you represent us as well.

Elsewhere in Westchester, for example, top salaries for the coming school year (excluding longevity) include $127,925 in Pelham, $133,278 in Edgemont and $138,253 in Katonah. Teachers also get extra pay for advising student extracurricular activities and coaching sports. If they have the bad luck to be married to another senior teacher, they also will find themselves in the "fair share" crosshairs.

Other NYSUT member comments from the union web page:

• "I read your article and it disturbs me that my VOTE-COPE money went to this...Do you realize that you are setting up a class war? I worked for more than 20 years in the schools and, believe me, there is plenty of waste...

  Do you realize that when you tax people a percentage more, they won't strive to earn more? They will find ways to hide it or just leave the state. You will kill all that is good here." Dawn Pellechi

• "Thanks for running your incessant TV ads hectoring the public to get your hands into my wallet. They remind me to call my state representatives to get them to resist the insane spend-spend-spend mentality that seems to be endemic in New York. Who do you think is going to pay for all of this stuff you're lusting after? Not me--I'm broke." Michele Denber

• "I am writing to NYSUT because I am very upset at the despicable ad campaign....

  [Y]ou don't have to be a math teacher to understand that if the $30,000-a-year janitor is paying a 15 percent tax rate, the guy making $20 million is going to pay a lot more than the janitor, even at the 15 percent tax rate...

  How would you like it if those janitors rose up and demanded that teachers pay what the janitors decided was their "fair share" of taxes?

  You are entitled to your opinions, warped as they are, but you are not entitled to the sweat of anyone's brow. They earned it, you didn't." Kevin Lynch, Clifton Park

• "When your commercial played on my radio this morning, I could not believe what I heard. What in the world makes you think that those people who have worked harder or smarter or have made better use of their money should pay a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else? That idea is based in communism.

  Everyone has an equal opportunity to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and put themselves in the "wealthy" category. To encourage others to take away what these "wealthy" people earned is unconscionable and un-American." Jim Spaller

Posted by Lise Bang-Jensen

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