but I'm stuck in a blue state
Posted on 04/20/2015 12:45:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Two months ago, Action News brought you the story about one local organization researching into a possible secession for 15 towns in Upstate New York to Pennsylvania.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) decision to ban hydraulic fracking in New York compelled the Upstate New York Towns Association to look into the idea.
This month, the organization is releasing more information on the matter. Carolyn Price, president of the Upstate New York Towns Association, shared the group’s findings with Action News exclusively this week.
Price said Upstate New York is currently in an “economic death spiral.” She attributes her statement to various issues that the area is currently facing—one of them being the cost to do business in the Empire State.
Price and her team compared the expense of owning a small business in New York versus Pennsylvania. Although she wouldn’t disclose the names of the businesses used for the comparison, she did tell Action News that the two are considered small businesses.
The research analyzed four different parts: payroll, payroll taxes, data processing and taxes & licenses.
Below is the data the organization compiled (with numbers from 2014):
1. Payroll (2014 minimum wage in NY: $8.00; PA: $7.25)
New York: $1,530,176 Pennsylvania: $1,504,722 Difference: $25,454
2. Payroll Taxes (Includes the following: social security & medicare, unemployment insurance, FUTA tax for unemployment and disability insurance)
New York: $177,278 Pennsylvania: $145,776 Difference: $31,502
3. Data Processing (*Important to note: New York State Labor Law Section 191 requires *weekly* payday for manual workers)
New York: $34,636 Pennsylvania: $18,759 Difference: $15,877
4. Taxes & Licenses (Refers to property taxes)
New York: $125,086 Pennsylvania: $50,431 Difference: $74,655
***Total Expenses:
New York: $1,867,176 Pennsylvania: $1,719,688 Difference: $147,488
Based on these numbers, small businesses in Upstate New York paid almost $150,000 more to operate in 2014 than small businesses in Pennsylvania.
Price referred to these numbers as alarming, as she explained they threaten the existence of small business within Upstate New York.
So what is next for the Upstate New York Towns Association? Will they still push for 15 towns to secede to Pennsylvania? Price told Action News that this decision will be up to the public, as her organization wants the community to be involved.
“[Secession] needs to be looked at,” she explained. “Why wouldn’t we want to examine all the options we can in order to make our state not only better to work in, but better to live in?”
Action News will have a full story on this data, as well as reaction from local business owners, this week.
Well the constitution is pretty clear on taking parts of one state and added it to another. So good luck with that!
Yes these folks are pretty much p*ssing into the wind.
HOWEVER, there’s nothing that says the residents can’t uproot and head somewhere more favorable.
Why doesn’t Upstate NY separate itself from NYC?
NYC is the problem for Upstaters.
Without our water, NYC would die.
The problem will be the legislature of New York. Article IV, Section. 3 of the Constitution does not prohibit creating states out of existing states. It requires the approval of the legislatures of the legislatures of the states involved and of Congres.
Article IV, Section 3: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”
Yes, it is a long shot, but it is not impossible.
Yeah for Randy Andy Cuomo!
Hope you’ll enjoy eating your water without down state taxes!
What exactly are down state taxes giving Upstaters?
Their taxes pay a lot of the welfare benefits upstate. Of course, without downstate, they probably wouldn’t need welfare benefits....
The leach of liberalism can never survive without a productive (e.g., conservative) host.
We could do very well without the welfare benefits...and the recipients. All they do is pop out babies, breed dogs, drink and sell heroin. They get so much back in taxes in credits, they’re richer than those not on welfare and trying to just survive.
Oh, and if one wants to hire any of these peoples just to odd jobs, they want to be paid cash and want $10.00/hr.
Please give me another good reason why Upstaters need downstaters.
This article is spot on. We left upstate NY two years ago. Wasted a year in NJ. We're in PA now, with the 3% state + 1% county flat income tax. The people (upper Bucks County) are very friendly. Weather is less severe. Economy here seems vibrant; Help wanted signs abound.
We had moved to the Southern Tier in 1986, before IBM, Singer-Link, GE, EJ, etc. slashed their payrolls or went belly up. Endicott seemed to be dying when we left it in 2013. Seemed if upstate ended up with only three people left, two would vote for fracking and the other would sue.
Upstate NY is quite possibly the most beautiful area in the U.S, even surpassing CA.
It is an amazingly beautiful state. When my husband and I travel, we are always amazed at the beauty of New York state.
Hey, New York towns... join Florida...
Fracking boom creates jobs for women—
but only as prostitutes and maids, activist claims
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3281278/posts
An Earth Day call to ban fracking across this land
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3282126/posts
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