Posted on 03/05/2019 7:34:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In his 1980 classic, “The Cost of Good Intentions,” author Charles Morris chronicled how New York liberals spent the city into disaster. Free housing, college tuition, health care and welfare skyrocketed until a fiscal crisis ended the binge. As the city nearly went bankrupt, crime soared and families and businesses fled.
Liberals have been replaced by progressives, but no matter what they call themselves, a new generation of New York pols are ignoring history as they tax and spend at astronomical levels.
This time, there isn’t any excuse about good intentions. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo both want to be president, and they are recklessly turning New York into a leftist lab experiment to get national attention for themselves. Their party controls both the City Council and the state Legislature.
The result is a slow-motion disaster, with years of excessive tax and fee hikes making the city and many suburbs prohibitively expensive to govern and unaffordable for residents and employers.
City government spending has soared by 25 percent since 2014, and reports last week that de Blasio squandered $1.8 billion on just two programs, one in education and one on mental health, were shocking but not surprising. Spending on the homeless has doubled, to more than $2 billion annually, even as the homeless population grows.
Cuomo blew through $10 billion on economic development projects that spawned more corruption than jobs. This year, state spending is going up by about 4 percent, even as income tax collections are declining by more than 4 percent because higher-income families are fleeing to low-tax states.
In addition to the tax burden, other progressive policies also make New York unaffordable. A $15 minimum wage and other costs imposed on businesses are driving up everyday prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
1) Prices on suburban trains and bridge and tunnel tolls are going up by about 6 percent, even as inflation is just 2 percent.
2) But the biggest boondoggle of all is a planned new tax on Manhattan congestion. If approved by the Legislature, it will cost drivers several thousand dollars a year for starts, making it the single biggest tax hike on the working and middle class in memory. Because delivery trucks will get hit with double or triple that amount, prices are sure to rise on everything from beer to baby food.
No longer pretending the tax will relieve Midtown congestion, the mayor and governor say the tax is necessary to close an operating deficit and help fund a new capital plan for the troubled subway system. They also promise to streamline the notoriously wasteful agency, an evergreen vow that nobody takes seriously.
3) One portion of the congestion tax, covering yellow cabs and ride-sharing companies like Uber, already took effect despite driver protests. One rider told me of three instances where yellow-cab drivers turned off their meters to avoid having to charge the $2.50 congestion tax and expected higher tips instead.
For a recent Uber ride to Midtown, taxes amounted to 18 percent of my $42 fare, including the congestion fee, sales tax of 8.875 percent and a separate 2.5 percent tax called a “black car” fund to give drivers workers’ compensation insurance. The full congestion tax could add $10 or more to the fare.
4) Reports indicate that the tax-and-spending surge is exacerbating the long, steady exodus of middle-class and upper-income families. Much like their 1970s predecessors, Cuomo and de Blasio insist their policies are the answer when in fact they are the problem.
5) Cuomo pushed through casino gambling just for taxes, and seems poised to do the same on recreational marijuana. Florida has a million more people than New York, yet manages to get by with a budget half the size of New York state’s.
Cuomo prefers gambling over fracking while his state actually has to IMPORT natural gas from next door Pennsylvania !! Go Figure.
Ping.
Ping.
Good. NY needs financial ruin.
Yes they will, yet somehow manage to blame Republicans for it and will get away with it.
Occasional Kotex just eliminated Billions of dollars in jobs and tax revenue. The woman is an idiot. Basic math
$20 Billion dollars multiplied be 0 = $0 dollars
At the end of the day they will go to Congress with a butt-puckering Chicken Little tale of impending doom, and they WILL get a bailout.
That is the enduring lesson of 2009, people.
What an odd comment.
What you reinforce - - you get more of...
A nickle here, a dime there. Who'll notice?
NY is a one-party progressive state. Many decades of leftist central planning and rule, along with our fiat, US dollar trading - have made NY City preeminent in politics and economics and turned the rest of the state into a combined version of East Germany and Appalachia.
Massive Taxes and debt keep progressive government in NY afloat.
It will ONLY change when change (ie. financial ruin) is forced upon it.
Do you understand now?
For some odd reason, DeBlasio et al have been hankering for a return to the 70s. Weird nostalgia!
Bookmark
And then they’ll blame Republicans, like they did with Gerald Ford.
Here’s a solution that’s guaranteed to restore NY’s financial future and make everyone happy: Raise taxes.
Okay, sarc.
Why would you think otherwise? They were the ones who sent you to ruin in the 70s... they just call themselves progressives now instead of liberals.....
Doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.
bookmark
Exactly. I think it’s a great idea. let NY and SFO entice all the homeless to come to them, Get them the heck out of the real America.
Surprise surprise, somehow the city came up with the money they needed without the American taxpayer bailing them out.
Works for me.
:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.