“My father was governor of this state before your time. He was against the death penalty. Everyone in the state wanted the death penalty. Everyone. Near 80 percent. [But] he said, ‘I’m not going to sign it.’ So the fact that [now] everybody wants [the millionaires tax] doesn’t mean all that much. I represent the people. Their opinions matter. But I’m not going to go back and forth with the political winds. So I don’t know how relevant that is.” —

Gov. Cuomo, explaining in October
why he intended to oppose new taxes for New York, including the
so-called “millionaires tax,” even if a majority of New Yorkers favor it