Most New Yorkers prefer tax hikes to service cuts: poll

New York City dwellers, by a majority of 49 per cent to 35 per cent, said they preferred that the city's budget be balanced with tax increases instead of service reductions, a new poll said on Friday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, opposes proposals to extend the income-tax surcharge on millionaires to help close a nearly $5 billion deficit.

"Almost everywhere that people are polled about tax hikes versus service cuts, they prefer service cuts," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "Except in relentless liberal New York City," he added.

An even bigger majority of voters - 89 per cent - agreed that the city's budget woes were "very serious" or "somewhat serious," according to the Quinnipiac poll of 1,115 voters. Bloomberg has ordered 10 rounds of budget cuts since 2007. His new $65 billion budget plan lays off nearly 5,000 teachers and reduces the fire and police forces to their lowest levels in decades.