1199SEIU members were among the hundreds who gathered at noon on October 11 in midtown Manhattan for a Billionaire’s March through Manhattan’s Upper East Side to protest proposed tax cuts and the repeal of New York State’s “millionaire’s tax.”

During the march, demonstrators picketed the homes five of New York City billionaires - Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, ultra-right oil magnate David Koch, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America CEO John Paulson and real estate magnate Howard Milstein – and present a giant check for $5 billon at each residence. That’s the amount wealthy residents stand to save if proposed tax cuts are enacted.

“These cuts will directly affect our economy,” said Louisa Antoine, a home attendant with New York City’s KindCare agency. “There are already no jobs and no money. Everything is just going down.”

Though the march was not a direct effort of Occupy Wall Street, many demonstrators were supporters of the group and an Occupy Wall Street representative addressed the crowd before the march stepped off.

“We are cutting school services to pay for a tax cut to the richest of the rich,” she said. “The 99 percent can put that money to better use than Koch, Millstein or Dimon.”

Protesters chanted, “We are the 99 percent” and “This is what democracy looks like,” as they hoisted signs demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share and calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to renew the state’s “millionaire’s tax.” Along the route, doormen and other working people offered encouragement; one construction worker waved a sign of support from the scaffolding he was working on.

“We need to rescue our economy,” said Raimundo Valdes, a central sterile technician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan. “We need to create jobs and employment in New York and America. That has to be the conversation, not just tax cuts.