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Mayor, Governor Conflicted

To The Editor:

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson's opposition to the proposed "Millionaire's Tax" seems based upon their ideological thought that any increase will drive these individual out of New York State, where our current top tax rate is 6.85 percent.

Will they be moving to California (top rate 9.3 percent), New Jersey (top rate 8.97 percent) or Washington, DC (top rate 8.5 percent)?

To be fair, there are states with lower top rates, but these rates go into effect at a much lower taxable income. The proposal is not as onerous as the opposition to it, and their obvious conflict of interest.

BILL ROMAKA

Editor's note: Mr. Romaka is health and safety director of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. The opinions he expressed are his own, and not necessarily shared by the union.