NY Upstate is dying because we are supporting a NY City designed welfare, tort, environmental, public sector system in an area without the population and tax base to support it.
Take the NY State laws on brownfields, for example. There is extreme liability placed on new owners for any environmental issues on the land, regardless of who caused it. This is fine in NY City, where developers can/will pay to clean up marginal land (NY City never had heavy industry anyway) given they can build 40 story condos on it later. Here in Upstate though, no one in their right mind would consider trying to renovate old industrial land of any kind. Same with the Wicks law designed for the benefit of downstate-run unions.
Same with the NY State Power authority that uses Upstate hydro-power to fund NY City Public housing at greatly reduced rates
There are a million examples.
What would be best is if Upstate and the Counties of NY City could be completely seperated into different entities. Make NY City a district, like Washington DC.
Upstate NY used to have a population and a tax base. Where did they go? Places with better weather. Now NYC is its tax base.
NYC’s economy was originally built on industry. However, the NYC economy has changed periodically, unlike some industrial economies that just died. It was realized that the dirty stuff could be kept in Jersey.
NYC may get power and water from the hinterland, but overall Downstate is paying for Upstate, not the other way around.
I agree that Upstate (starting perhaps at Dutchess and Orange counties) should be made a separate polity. It is really more like Ohio or Pennsylvania.