Rich New Yorker, poor New Yorker

Does an annual income between $200,000 and $250,000 make you rich or poor? According to Democratic lawmakers in New York, the answer is both.

In extending New York's creaking rent regulations, which cover the five boroughs and surrounding counties (including Nassau), Democrats wanted to raise the household cutoff to $250,000, beyond which a tenant would be deemed affluent enough to pay market prices. But those same Democrats wanted to extend the state's surtax on high-income New Yorkers -- starting with individuals earning $200,000-plus. So a person making between $200,000 and $250,000 is at once poor enough to get a rent-regulated apartment and rich enough to pay what is colloquially known as a "millionaire's tax." Rich and poor have always lived side by side in New York, but never before in the same body.