That'll Work

By Bob

Spitzer's idea on how to boost New York's economy:


New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, in his first address to a joint session of the Legislature, asked lawmakers to strengthen the state's economy by such measures as boosting spending for transportation projects and a $2 billion bond proposal for stem-cell research.
Anyone want to bet on how effective this will be in boosting the economy? I'll take the under.

In all seriousness, upstate New York economy is pretty bad by national standards. The city of New York survives because the costs imposed by the state and local officials are small when you're employing investment bankers and lawyers. The story is different in other sectors of the economy and the rest of the state suffers. Good luck Mr. Spitzer with your program, You need it.

-- January 3, 2007 8:29 PM |

Comments

KipEsquire wrote:

Maybe next he'll propose re-opening the Erie Canal...

-- January 3, 2007 8:56 PM ∞

Buzzcut wrote:

I fled Western New York 8 years ago. Things have only gotten worse since then. When I moved to Chicago from Buffalo, my house cost twice as much, yet my property taxes were half. The income tax in Illinois is less than half, and sales taxes are generally a little bit lower, sometimes quite a bit lower, depending on where you shop. And it's not even like Illinois is a low tax state.

Oh, and since 1999, my home has more than doubled in value. I checked Zillow, and my old home hasn't appreciated at all.

The thing that I absolutely hate about New York is how clueless people are as to the cause of the malaise. Duh, it's the taxes. They're stupid high. If New York didn't have an income tax and property taxes were as low as, say, Texas, economic growth would be just fine. But people don't seem to get it. That's why I left when I had the opportunity. Even Democrats in Illinois seem to understand that there's a limit to how high taxes can be (although they seem to just float debt, rather than cut spending, so maybe in 10 years taxes here will be just as high as NY).

-- January 4, 2007 10:16 AM ∞

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