The impact of high taxes and a high cost of living is never lost on the middle-class family, but it certainly seems like Albany forgets how expensive it is to live here in this beautiful state. New York has a long-standing record of spending too much of our hard-earned money. This is New York’s status quo, but just because it has become the norm doesn’t mean that it should be this way.

New York’s tax freedom day falls on May 6, five days later than last year and nearly two-and-a-half weeks later than the national average. Tax freedom day is the day that you, the taxpayer, have worked enough days to cover the costs of your federal, state and local taxes. Nationally, this day is later because of the fiscal cliff issues at the federal level, but certainly one has to wonder why states like Mississippi and Louisiana have a date that falls in late March, nearly five weeks earlier than our own.

Considering that New York is often ranked among the least business-friendly states in the nation and that our upstate rural communities need job creation and economic growth and less expensive living costs, the legislature needs to reevaluate how our tax-and-spend policies are working for our families.

Per capita, the average state and local tax burden in New York is roughly $6,375. On average, it takes a little over 29 percent of your income to meet all your federal, state and local tax obligations. Between income, sales and property taxes – not including the fees and fines that you may pay in a year – it just becomes too much to bear in the struggling upstate economy.

Lessening this burden on families could give New York the revitalizing lift it needs. Money saved could be used to send kids to college, invest in a small-business venture, buy a first home or support one’s local economy.

So how do we change things?

Well, to start off, the first thing New York needs to do is stop spending so much. Until our economy improves drastically, we can’t really afford to allow the state budget to grow much more than it already has. We’ve started to make progress, but much more can be done.

Next, we need to think about every increase. Is it worth the repercussions of increasing a tax or fee when we could potentially lose private investment and families who can no longer afford to live here? Additionally, we mustn’t forget the other policies and actions that indirectly increase taxes like the effect that unfunded state mandates have had on our local property taxes.

In the end, New York owes you more than just platitudes on making the state more affordable and prosperous, it needs to actually deliver.