Opinion

THE VAMPIRE TAX

Sheldon Silver’s band of legislative brigands sent a message to hard working New Yorkers of means yesterday – and to those who aspire to better themselves and their families through initiative and hard work.

It was stark and precisely to the point: Your money is ours, folks – no matter how hard you worked for it; no matter how many jobs you created along the way, and no matter how many jobs will be lost when you finally learn your lesson and pack your bags for more favorable fiscal environments.

The Assembly passed the so-called “Millionaire’s Tax,” a nasty piece of work meant to pluck clean the bones of successful New Yorkers so that the special pleaders Silver really answers to don’t have to miss a tee-time.

That would be the unions and the lobbyists and the hospital cartel – the folks who really call the shots in Albany.

True, the Senate isn’t likely to follow suit and pass the new levy.

But just wait.

Yes, Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos both agreed to boost spending this year by a few hundred million less than what was planned – never mind all the hot air about draconian spending cuts – and Gov. Paterson deserves credit for getting them to do even that much.

But Paterson had wanted lawmakers to throttle back by some $600 million – and they fell clearly short of that.

What a thumb in taxpayers’ eyes.

Paterson – let’s be honest – wasn’t even asking for much.

He had to beg lawmakers to tackle a Sasquatch-sized budget hole ($26 billion over the next three years) that’s threatening to eat New York.

He had to plead for relief for property owners whose tax load is among the heaviest in the nation.

And it took an official order by the governor just to get lawmakers back to Albany to take up these matters.

Yet, instead of addressing them seriously, legislators merely genuflected – reining in spending ever so slightly so as not to draw too much ire from their paymasters – and nixing a property-tax cap. And then Silver rubbed salt in the wounds by passing the new impost.

That made it clear to the special pleaders: Come next year, you needn’t worry.

Your cups will still runneth over – just like always.

Gov. Paterson deserves credit for playing the adult in yesterday’s low farce of a special session.

“We may be as challenged as we have been since the Great Depression,” Paterson said on Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker’s radio show yesterday. State revenues, he said, are about to “fall off the table” due to Wall Street’s woes.

But he’s the only one who cares.