Taxes are a symptom, not the cause.
The real problem is that we're still stuck with an antiquated government structure. It's not unheard of for a person to be covered by 9 jurisdictions, each with the independant ability to levy taxes (Federal, State, County, Town, Village, sewer and water district, fire district, school district, and one I can't recall). That's a lot of bureaucracy - and bureuacracy gets particularly expensive when you give each executive the power to appoint employees. There's a lot of places the executive can stuff political patronage employees.
Then you consider that Upstate NY has an aging infrastructure and governmental structure that was built for a larger population.
Then add into the fact that benefits are exploding across the US, though NY seems to spend more per capita than any other state in the union.
With all these factors, its no wonder taxes are high.
Very well put. My family still lives in Oneida County, they have a sales tax rate of 9.5%. It's outrageous, the county said they had to increase it to that much because of Medicaid spending. Well, to find out the County Exec. overestimated it by around 10 million dollars.
They have plans to decrease it in increments starting in December. Now this County Exec., a Republican, has plans to go to Albany as a State Senator to reduce taxes. What a joke.
Good point. You're right. I have friends that live in upstate, small town NY ( I lived there myself for a while) and there are lots of little fifedoms and tax districts, etc.