Press Connects
Binghamton
About 200 people gathered downtown Tuesday with a simple message for Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “Beware the Ides of March.”
Members of Citizen Action, local labor and teacher unions, students and others rallied at Government Plaza to protest cuts in Cuomo’s executive budget proposal and push for an extension of a tax on the state’s highest-earning residents.
“They’re expecting us to stand by the wayside like lambs on the way to slaughter,” said city Councilwoman Lea Webb, D-4th Ward, a Citizen Action organizer. “But that’s not going to happen. We’re going to fight.”
Protesters were calling on a restoration of school aid, saying Cuomo’s $1.5 billion cut would result in closed schools and missed opportunities.
“These are our children, and this is our community,” said Sherita Searcy, of Binghamton. “We are here to represent to Cuomo and his cabinet that Binghamton is not a city that lies down.”
Among those participating were Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan and Lee Conrad, president of the Broome and Tioga chapter of AFL-CIO.
Many of the protestors called for an extension of the “millionaire’s tax,” which affects New Yorkers earning more than $200,000 annually. The tax is set to expire at year’s end and is opposed by Cuomo and Senate Republicans, but advocates were making a last-minute push for a compromise that would tax those making more than $1 million.
“We are one in saying no to tax breaks for billionaires as the elderly and middle class loses services,” Conrad said. “We will fight on and we will win.”
