New York State officials who enjoyed the ability to create budgets to finance expansive government programs at the expense of tax-paying residents may have to become accustomed to more fiscally conservative distribution and spending policies. According to a report from the Empire Center for Public Policy, more than 1.5 million residents left New York State to move to other states from 2000-2008. 1.1 million of these individuals resided in one of New York City’s five boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island – as 1/7 of tax-paying city residents participated in the mass exodus from the Empire State.

The Manhattan Institute identified the prohibitively high cost of living and taxes as primary reasons why such a significant number of residents chose to leave the state during the decade. New York has several counties which rank among the highest in nation in terms of property taxes; Westchester and Nassau Counties have ranked near the top of this list for several years, and New York counties account for five of the eleven counties which receive the most revenue in property taxes from residents.

New York spends significantly more resources on Medicaid than any other state. According to Public Policy Institute analysis, New York has spent more than twice the per-capita national average in terms of total spending and on individual program categories. The cost of fraud within the Medicaid program is higher in New York than in any other state, which contributes to the misallocation of resources.

New York’s illegal immigrant population is among the highest in the United States, and the presence of these residents, the vast majority of which do not pay taxes, has become costly. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), illegal immigrants cost tax-paying residents of New York $5.1 billion annually for education, medical care, and incarceration; this imposes an addition average burden of $874 per tax-payer. FAIR estimates the state receives $730 million in sales, income, and property taxes from illegal immigrants, equaling a net deficit incurred of more than $4.5 billion per year. The influx of illegal immigrants and the re-location of skilled, tax-paying residents account in part for the more than $20,000 decrease in average salary between those who have left New York during the decade and those who have re-located to the state.

The decline of several prominent financial institutions and the reduced profitability of Wall Street have cost New York State billions in taxable income. After relying heavily on the private financial sector as a source of taxable income to subsidize government programs for decades, local and state governments will have to adjust spending practices in order to account for the drastic reduction in income tax revenue during difficult and uncertain economic times. The government is faced with a dwindling number of tax-paying residents while state residents must cope with increasing costs of living. The trend presents a serious program for a government recently accustomed to having a veritable “treasure chest” of tax-payer wealth to distribute, a dependent class which relies heavily on the government for sustenance, and tax-paying residents who have to contribute significant percentages of their income to finance government programs while supporting themselves and their families.

Read article here

You may also like

State’s Growing Budget Hole Threatens NYC Jobs and Aid as Congress Takes a Holiday

“The biggest problem for the state is the enormous, recurring structural budget gap starting next year and into the future,” said E.J. McMahon of the conservative-leaning Empire Center. “Cuomo clearly hopes that starting in 2021, (Democratic presidential candidate Joseph) Biden and a Democratic Congress will provide states and local government a couple of year’s worth of added stimulus. Read More

How Andrew Cuomo became ‘maybe the most powerful governor’ in U.S.

Ed McKinley ALBANY — When the New York Constitution was reorganized nearly 100 years ago to give the governor more power over the budget process,  noted there was a risk of making “the governor a czar." M Read More

Study disputes Cuomo on Trump tax package; experts say it’s complicated

Michael Gormley ALBANY — A new study by a conservative think tank says President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law gave most New Yorkers a tax cut, even as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo insists on repealing the measure because he says it will cost New Yo Read More

Empire Center sues Department of Health over nursing home records

Johan Sheridan ALBANY, N.Y. () — The Empire Center filed a  against the state Department of Health on Friday. “This case isn’t about assigning blame or embarrassing political leaders,” said Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s Read More

Good news: That New York pork isn’t going out the door after all

The Empire Center first reported Tuesday that grants — 226 of them, totaling $46 million, to recipients selected by the governor and individual state lawmakers — seemed to still be going ahead. Read More

New York Lawmakers Seek Independent Probe of Nursing-Home Coronavirus Deaths

With lingering questions about how the novel coronavirus killed thousands of New Yorkers who lived in nursing homes, a group of state lawmakers is pushing to create an independent commission to get answers from the state Department of Health. Read More

Policy analyst: Cuomo wrong to write-off nursing home criticism as political conspiracy

“The importance of discussing this and getting the true facts out is to understand what did and didn’t happen so we can learn from it in case this happens again,” Hammond said. Read More

EDITORIAL: Nursing home report requires a second opinion

No doubt, the Health Department and the governor would like this report to be the final word on the subject. But if it’s all the same with them, we’d still like a truly independent review. Read More