The Best Thing Albany Can Do For New York’s Economy Is Step Aside

Legislative Column from Ken Blankenbush (R,C,I-Black River)

During a 15-year stretch, from 1993 to 2008, New York lost 627,735 jobs from company departures and closures. With the jobs went New Yorkers, with an average net loss of 50,500 residents annually. Making matters worse is New York’s recovery from the 2009 recession, which has been lagging behind the national recovery rate.

What happened to the Empire State, the captain of economic innovation and growth? Its government happened.

Albany’s leaders acquired a keen taste for spending and grew hungry for revenue, causing taxes to increase. Albany grew meddlesome, imposing rules, regulations and unfunded mandates on our job creators and our communities, thinking little of how this would impact our economy.

New York has been perpetually ranked the least business-friendly state by various economic indexing lists. New York is ranked with nearly the highest in personal income taxes, unemployment insurance taxes and property taxes, and, at best, middle-of-the-road sales and corporate taxes. Take into account those rankings, and add in thousands of pages worth of regulations, and it’s no wonder that New York is ranked among the least business-friendly states in the nation. This isn’t just one group ranking our state so poorly, New York has been given lackluster ratings by the Tax Foundation (50th), Chief Executive Magazine (49th), CNBC (34th), FORBES (23rd), and the American Legislative Exchange Council (37th in performance and 49th in economic outlook).

So what’s the plan? Well, Gov. Cuomo has proposed ‘Tax-Free Zones’ that would be situated at a number of SUNY campuses, offering ten-year, tax-free incentives to businesses that locate at those business hubs. His plan essentially rewards new businesses, outsourced from who knows where, at the same time giving the cold shoulder to businesses that have been loyal to New Yorkers and have stuck it out through our state’s toughest times. The governor’s proposed ‘Tax-Free Zones’ would impact only about 120-million-square-feet of land, or about 4.3 square miles. What about the rest of the 54,556 square miles in the state, which are home to other job creators and residents in need of work? While I am not against creating hot spots for innovation and job growth at our SUNY campuses, something must be done to generate widespread and rapid economic recovery.

Adding pressure on our economy is the fact that we have Texas Governor Rick Perry here in New York actively trying to poach our job creators, because Texas is truly open for business. Not only are we competing with Texas, but we’re also competing globally. We need to change our excessive tax and regulation policies if we want to avoid being a jobless wasteland.

During my tenure as your assemblyman, I have been touting reforms that would bring about true economic recovery – like eliminating job-killing taxes, lifting onerous regulations and business-hindering rules. Fortunately, the Senate leadership, including Senators Ritchie and Griffo, and I are on the same page. We want to see real change happen for our economy and it will require lifting many of those regulatory hurdles. We recognize that this is the way to create the growth our entire state is hungry for.

Just imagine if we voted to repeal just 1,000 regulations that are slowing our economy down, imagine what that would mean for our state. Imagine if we enacted a number of business-friendly policies, and how that would change our reputation for being hostile to businesses. Imagine the growth this would create.

In the remaining days of the legislative session, we need to pass policies that will change the face of our economy and the individual prosperity of New Yorkers. For New York’s economy and jobs to grow, government needs to step aside and get out of the way. Please join me in telling the governor and the assembly majority that this is the priority and agenda of every New Yorker and it must happen now.