Tax Deadbeat Andrew Cuomo Vows To Go After Tax Deadbeats Like Himself

How's this for chutzpah?

Tax deadbeat Andrew Cuomo, the man who won't let the tax assessor into his house to assess the semi-homemade improvements Sandra Lee made to it that would raise his tax bill, is going to go after other tax deadbeats:

ALBANY— Tax scofflaws owing the state as little as $5,000 could have their driver’s licenses suspended if Gov. Cuomo gets his way.

Cuomo in 2013 successfully pushed a law to suspend the licenses of those owing the state at least $10,000 in back taxes.

Since going into effect, nearly 14,000 delinquent taxpayers have forked over more than $125 million to the state taxman to get their driving privileges reinstated, officials say.

Cuomo estimates that lowering the threshold to $5,000 would impact another 11,000 people and result in $9 million in new revenue and $3 million annually after that.

 “Those who fail to play by the same rules as everyone else place an undue burden on hardworking, law-abiding taxpayers,” he said. “These reforms send a simple message: either pay the taxes they owe, or face real consequences.”

Let's review the "Cuomo refuses to let the tax assessor into his house" story from last year:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the controversy over whether he and his live-in girlfriend, Food Network star Sandra Lee, dodged property tax increases on their $1.2 million New Castle home for the first time Thursday but claimed not to know too much about the process.

The governor said he was unaware that New Castle assessor Phil Platz was barred last month from entering his 4 Bittersweet Lane home to determine the taxable value of its interior. He said he thought that exterior inspections were all that was necessary.

"I think that's how it works, isn't it?" Cuomo asked.

Platz paid a visit to the six-bedroom, five-bath home on three acres May 27 after a Tax Watch investigation found that Lee did extensive work there without building permits and without triggering any increase in the home's taxable value. Lee bought the house she calls Lily Pond for $1.2 million in 2008 but the assessed value had since dropped to $936,000. The renovations she undertook were widely reported in profiles of Lee in USA Today and Vogue, among other publications.

Platz followed up on the newspaper's reporting and increased the assessment by 29 percent, to $1.2 million, but had to guess what was inside the home because he was denied admittance.

Cuomo says he wants to go after “Those who fail to play by the same rules as everyone else" and send them a simple message: either pay taxes or face consequences.

Swell - he ought to start with himself and his girlfriend Sandra Lee.