Cuomo's dance with Working Families Party

Last year, the union-backed Working Families Party endorsed Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo for governor -- but only after an interesting dance. At first, Cuomo resisted the nod, citing an investigation of the party's funding operations. That was later resolved. But then Cuomo insisted, as a condition for accepting the endorsement, that the party not oppose his fiscally conservative platform.

Cuomo accepted the nomination, which may have kept some lefty voters from choosing a third-party alternative. And WFP drew 154,853 votes to its gubernatorial slot. The deal between Cuomo and the WFP looks in retrospect like a win-win for both.

One year after the 2010 election, in the passions of a new situation, WFP and Cuomo appear to be on quite different pages -- even without public fire between them. While a few Occupy Albany protesters even went so far as to tag Cuomo with the name "Governor One Percent," Dan Cantor, the party's executive director, has issued several weeks' worth of statements rooting for the "Occupy" activists in New York City and Albany.

On Oct. 27, Cantor praised Albany County District Attorney David Soares for announcing, as Cantor put it, that "he would not prosecute anyone arrested for nuisance violations while exercising their First Amendment rights at Occupy Albany protests."

Soares' position differs sharply from that of the governor, who has called for enforcing Albany park curfews.

On the wider issue of the so-called millionaires' tax, Cuomo and the WFP have never agreed. The WFP has lobbied and petitioned for it. Cuomo has rejected it as hazardous to New York's position in the competitive business world.

Given a proliferation of slogans and sound bites, this may be a good time for a reminder of what all the commotion is about.

In 2009, Gov. David A. Paterson and the State Legislature imposed a temporary surcharge on upper-income earners. It is due to expire Dec. 31. The surcharge affects individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples making more than $300,000. It also affects many small-business owners who do not file corporate income tax returns.

Top tax rates rose from 6.85 percent to 8.97 percent. This is estimated to have brought in several billion dollars to deficit-vexed state coffers.

One business group said earlier this year that the tax extension would reduce projected deficits by about 25 percent.

With the governor and State Senate refusing any extension, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has counter-proposed keeping the surcharge just for those earning more than $1 million annually, to no avail.

For one side, canceling any part of the surcharge's planned expiration results in a "tax hike."

For the other, letting the surcharge expire as planned results in a "tax break" for the privileged. This side cites polls showing a "millionaires' tax" as widely acceptable to voters.

For Cuomo, it will continue to be an ideological balancing act.