Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is one lawmaker who reportedly received the email. Email: 'Time to kill the wealthy'

Several influential New York state lawmakers have received threatening mails saying it is “time to kill the wealthy” if they don’t renew the state’s tax surcharge on millionaires, according to reports.

“It’s time to tax the millionaires!” reads the email, according to WTEN in Albany. “If you don’t, I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”


State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos reportedly received the email, as did State Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari. The governor’s office did not tell the New York Daily News whether the governor received the email.

The email, with the threatening subject line of, “time to kill the wealthy,” was detailed and disturbing.

“How hard is it for us to stake out one of the obvious access roads to some tech company, tail an employee home and toss a liquor bottle full of flaming gasoline through their nice picture window into their cute house,” wrote the author of the email.

The email references terminology that has been used in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement — that the1 percent, the super rich, are exploiting the remaining 99 percent of Americans. The angry message demanded that Albany politicians “stop shoveling wealth from the lower 99 percent into the top 1 percent” and “set aside your ‘no new taxes on anybody’ pledge.”

The New York surcharge on the wealthy is set to expire at the end of this year, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans oppose continuing it. Under the surcharge, passed into law in 2009, individuals earning $200,000 or more pay 1 percentage point more in taxes, and those earning $500,000 or more pay a rate that is 2.12 percentage points higher than those earning less than $200,000. Less than 3 percent of New York households are affected by the surcharge.

“You’re going to do it [renew the surcharge], or we are going to sow the kind of choas [sic] you are unequipped to deal with,” the email said. “And you’re going to find yourself in a country where you and your wealthy friends are gonig [sic] to be hunted.”

State Police told the New York Daily News that they are aware of the email and are investigating the incident.