NYS Economy

First, our state has been on a spending/taxing spree for decades. WNY is the highest taxed area in the country, and at the same time New York State's largest employer has become....New York State. Labor Unions have not been declined any wage/benefit/bonus request in many years. Our state also has become the least business friendly state in a country that is the second least business friendly in the world. Businesses have been leaving NYS in droves to less expensive states or countries. This business loss has killed our economy, and the answer our government has come up with is to tax even more. So, is the answer to tax the "rich" even more?

It's not like those that have money do not have a choice of where to live. There's a reason why our tax base is crashing, it's because our government has chased many of the people and businesses that actually pay taxes....out of the state, leaving the rest of us to make up that loss and pay for even more government spending.

I have a friend that lives outside of NYC in a very nice area. He is well-off, but is considering moving because his property taxes are over...are you ready for this....$40,000.00 a year. That's just his property tax. Do we really want him to leave? He's paying more state taxes on just his property than myself and 20 of my neighbors.

There's no wonder why polls say that the "working class" (I always hated that term, for it indicates those that have money do not work) say that the rich should pay even more. The working class is getting crushed under the weight of our government's spending, and are looking for help from anywhere they can find it. Unfortunately, if we tax the "rich" more, our state's revenues will most likely drop because of the exodus of the rich to other states. This in turn will continue the cycle of increasing taxes on those of us that are not as well off.

I don't know how much longer the unions and politicians can think they can fool us with TV ads stating that Paterson is going to cut spending to hospitals, schools, and the public sector. They are not cutting spending, they are cutting the 8% INCREASE in spending down to 4% or less. I don't envy Gov. Patterson, for he's up against a bunch of down-state politicians that are in the union's pocket. When he asked that our next spending bill equal the 2007 level, he got laughed at.

Our state cannot increase taxes any further. With our govenment, and this includes Patterson, wanting to add a whopping 130 NEW taxes to our pocketbook, we are going to crash and burn. We have to do real CUTS to our state's spending....real meaningful cuts. We have to make our state more business friendly. We cannot keep spending money the same way we were when Wall Street was thriving, for those days are over.

Pix