The emotions over the proposed tax overhaul in Congress are running high in Albany.
"They just want to be in their gated community and sail away on their yacht," said Susan Zimet of the Hunger Action Network. "Hell no, we're not going to take it."
Governor Andrew Cuomo, too, has blasted the proposal and the provision that ends the deduction of state and local taxes with heated rhetoric. Just this week, he once again said Republicans who support the plan are traitors.
"The reason I say it is a treasonous act and they are Benedict Arnold is because not only there's no justification, they are even deceptive and disingenuous to their own people," Cuomo said.
In other venues, Cuomo has gone further, telling editorial page editors the tax plan would "rape and pillage" the state. California Governor Jerry Brown, in a conference call with Cuomo in November, compared congressional Republicans to the mafia. And some New York Republicans who are critical of the tax plan say the comments are going too far.
"Those comments are counter-productive and they are not helpful," said Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro. "Quite frankly, affiliating public policy with what is a horrfic criminal act doesn't help."
Like Molinaro, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb is also concerned with the impact of ending the so-called SALT deductions. But he says Cuomo's rhetoric has been over the top.
"I don't think it's helpful, and I think it scares people, because none of us have the details about what the actual plan is," Kolb said.
Kolb says Cuomo should be actively lobbying against the tax plan's provisions.
"The governor is the chief advocate for Washington, and that's where he should be spending his time," Kolb said.
Meanwhile, Cuomo has largely stayed behind closed doors in Albany when railing against the tax plan, speaking with reporters only in conference calls, prompting some members of the press to wait outside of the governor's office to speak with him in person. On Thursday, his staff contacted several reporters in the hopes of planting questions in these conference calls, where the questioners are hand-picked by the governor's team.