Silver: 'Millionaire tax' gains support

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday that public support for a "millionaire tax" to avoid more spending cuts is growing and he believes Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the Senate's Republican majority may yet support it.

Silver (D-Manhattan) has continued pushing the idea despite opposition by the Democratic governor and Senate Republicans, who have flatly rejected his bill to further tax New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year.

He said yesterday he plans months of debate beginning in January and believes his side can win that discussion. Silver said he's not willing to accept that Cuomo won't change his mind.

Cuomo says he won't because it will cost New York revenue and jobs by forcing millionaires to move to New Jersey and Connecticut.

Silver also has asked New York City's mayor to enforce health and noise codes at Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have camped for six weeks.

Silver, along with fellow Democrats Rep. Jerrold Nadler, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and City Council Member Margaret Chin, told Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a letter dated Tuesday that despite best efforts for everyone to get along, the protesters are disturbing local businesses and residents.

"I believe very strongly in the First Amendment right to speak out, but likewise I believe very strongly in people's rights to occupy their homes," Silver told reporters in Albany. First Amendment rights "should not include drumming in the middle of the night, or in the middle of the day . . . it should not include defecating and urinating on sidewalks and places that causes odors; and should not include barriers that police set up that are infringing on businesses' rights to exist and have customers come in and out."

Bloomberg's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.