Highway Robbery!

We just heard an update about our salary at work. We've been waiting for some time to receive our retro pay. You see, our contract expired years ago and they finally reached an agreement...of course that new contract has since expired and we still haven't gotten money due from the old one. The powers that be said we'll be getting the money-hopefully by August. This is about 4 years worth of retro pay-money we should have been getting all along. Now we'll get it in 1 lump sum. That's never good. Especially in this state, which is crying broke. So, I find out this morning that we'll get our money, but it'll be taxed-taxed 48%!!!!!!!! Yes, they'll be taking half of the money we should have had, and been investing ourselves for the past 4 years. Nooo NY has kept all that money, reaping its interest and now will keep half of it! As my co-worker said, "It's highway robbery!"