A few years ago I wrote an editorial on the futility of the Federal Government’s efforts to correct the economy by raising taxes in various areas.
Gee, anyone remember when the people were taxed too much?
At the time manufacturing jobs were down and overall employment was reduced to an unemployment rate of over 9 percent.
Fast forward 8 years later and we find things much improved: The unemployment rate is down to 4.1 percent and more important still: Manufacturing jobs, which were at a low of 11.7 million in 2010 have climbed to 12.5 million as of December 2017.
Additionally, the federal government has passed a new tax simplification law that will give each worker an average of $1,500 per year in extra income.
You would think with all this good news that citizens of New York would be happy?
Our beloved Governor
Well, that would be the case if we weren’t managed by the old guard. Thus, let’s talk about what Zippy the knothead Cuomo has proposed.
Remember, as I said before: Denial is one of the stages of loss. Apparently, many political and financial “experts” have entered this stage lately in regard to our current political times. After all, it’s easier to just decry and demean the winner of a fair election than to present intelligent solutions. Thus, the Governor’s outlook.
I picture his general psyche as such:
So, you’ve just been embarrassed by the President of the United States concerning your taxation and lack of business friendly tactics in your State. What do you do?
Damn you President Trump!
Easy, throw a tantrum and tax everything you can.
Our exalted Governor, in his infinite wisdom has proposed a series of additional taxes (not that we New Yorkers pay enough) aimed at businesses. After all, what better way to keep people and businesses in your state but by tax them some more? It isn’t enough that New York lost 800,000 people in the last year along with countless businesses.
Oh, but wait! He isn’t taxing his citizens! He’s taxing the evil corporations that make too much. It’s not right that they got a tax break along with regular taxpayers. Besides, they won’t pass it along to the consumer, they make too much as it is.
Really? Do they really think we are that naive?
Perhaps we are. Let’s take a look at some of the high points of Andy’s proposed taxes:
First we have a tax called “The Internet Fairness Conformity Tax”. A nice sounding description of a tax that essentially says: “Well, if Amazon isn’t going to move to my state then I want the sales tax on the items sold in my state!” Thus, we aren’t only going to pass additional tax onto the consumer but we are probably going to increase the cost of goods sold. Who do you think is going to figure the tax and remit to New York, Drones?
The second one we have that is interesting is the Health Tax on Vapor products. Let’s take a look at this one: So, to deter the smoking of cigarettes, the State imposed all sorts of new laws and taxes. Then, along comes the science of Vaping, a way for smokers to wean themselves from the habit. But, wait, Vaping doesn’t provide us with an income stream like cigarettes do. Oh, I got it, let’s tax the smokers who switched to Vaping. That way until we figure out a way to ostracize them from Vaping we can still collect money from their filthy habits!
Then there is the case of the public health crisis of opioids (the latest media buzzword to describe a painkiller. Sexier, isn’t it?). Our Governor’s solution? Heck, that’s easy, place a tax on the opioid drug producers. After all, to quote “Big Pharma and the health insurance companies just got a big federal tax break while at the same time created the machine that fueled the opioid crisis — so spare me the song and dance about corporations crying poverty,” The Governor’s professional zipperhead Rich Azzopardi stated “Like the tobacco companies, this money is going to help fight the problem they created.” Heck, if your prescription costs weren’t high already just buckle your seatbelts.
And folks, I think that quote just about sums it up. Apparently it doesn’t matter what the Federal government gives you, how many people are leaving your State, or even the lack of quality employment opportunities. To paraphrase a worshiped Democrat: “It’s all about the Taxes, stupid!”
Thus, the solution, once again, is to not fix it, just raise taxes. Throw money at a problem. It doesn’t matter that your employment base is dwindling, or your high school graduation rate is producing an extraordinarily low amount of ‘college ready’ students (After all, it’s more important to push kids through than actually teach them how to survive
in the actual world but that’s for another missive), or that there are no businesses left.
And, let’s not even get into the fact that you have government determining how much you, as a business, should make.
I don’t even touch the tip of the iceberg on the amount of proposed new taxes by our Gov. For that, merely look it up. And, I won’t even begin on his genius move to raise health care costs even higher.
And, once again, we wonder how a non-politician won the last Presidential election. Then, when were done wondering that we run to the ballots to re-elect the same narrow minded out of touch individuals to multiple terms.
The future look of cities and towns in New York
Ciao!
