Supporters of the so-called "Millionaires' Tax" (a higher tax rate for those earning over $200,000) held rallies at City Hall and in Albany today, at the same time the Cuomo administration's director of operations testified at a hearing on workforce issues about the potential for close to 10,000 layoffs of state workers if union contracts aren't sufficiently renegotiated.

“Our drop dead date before we must begin planning for layoffs is April first,” said Howard Glaser, director of state operations. “If we don’t have an agreement in place on April 1^st, we must begin planning for workforce reductions at that point. When those reductions might take place is a consequence of many factors.”

The president of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) also testified at the hearing. PEF President Kenneth Brynien told legislators that for the sake of fairness, the Executive Budget should not require New York public employees to pay the entire price for the state’s deficit.

From Brynien's testimony:

“Public servants didn’t cause this deficit, and it begs the question why state workers, school employees, and health care workers should be asked to bear the brunt of the sacrifice to address this fiscal crisis,” he said.

[H/T Jimmy Vielkind]

-Brigid Bergin