Cuomo sells New York, and himself

NY Daily News ^ | april 23, 2013 | bill hammond

[lowbridge]

Gov. Cuomo’s nose must grow a little longer every time the state’s latest commercial message hits the airwaves — which is quite a lot recently.

“Welcome to the new New York State,” the voiceover intones, “where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business.”

The spot, which is supposed to spark business investment, goes on to declare that Empire State companies have saved more than $2 billion through “reduced taxes and lowered costs.”

That middle-class tax rates have been cut “to the lowest rate in 60 years.”

That the state is creating “tax-free zones for business startups.”

And that the economy has “created tens of thousands of new businesses.”

None of these cherry-picked factual statements is false, exactly. But the overall message distorts economic reality badly enough to make Don Draper of “Mad Men” blush.

In fact, New York’s business tax climate ranks dead last among the 50 states, according to the latest analysis from the Tax Foundation.

In fact, a lot of the tax savings for business took the form of breaks targeted to a lucky few, which simply shift the burden to other taxpayers.

In fact, the middle-class tax rate cuts touted in the commercial resulted in token savings — worth maybe a few hundred dollars for most families.

In fact — regardless of how many businesses started up — the state’s job creation rate is even more sluggish than that of the country as a whole.

The inconvenient truth is that Cuomo’s latest budget makes the situation worse, not better. It modestly reduces some business taxes and calls for sending $350 “rebate” checks to taxpayers with young children shortly before next year’s election.

At the same time, however, Cuomo chose to prolong tax surcharges on utilities and high-income individuals that were supposed to expire

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Is it $65? I think every ticket now is over $100. That city so incredibly screws over car owners it’s not funny. I remember one time a few years ago I was on Queens blvd. and I stopped near 46th street to run into a Dunkin donuts to get a coffee. I was literally in there for maybe a minute, “Give me a small coffee dark no sugar”...The guy pours it, I give him two bucks...Keep the change...and walk out and I see my car going down the street pulled by a tow truck. “No parking after 7am.” What time was it? 7am. Legalized car theft. Then I had to take off work as getting it back was an all day affair. Then I see illegals waiting on the welfare line everyday at 32-00 Northern blvd. This is why the city steals my car because the city feels it has to financially support other countries.