Posted on 06/12/2006 7:37:44 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
New York legislators, not satisfied with having the second highest tax burden in the nation, are pondering what some call "the biggest tax increase in the history" of the state, in order to force businesses to provide employee health care.
The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that legislators are considering the potential $ 8.4 billion tax increase as part of the "Fair Share for Health Care" bill:
The bill would levy an additional tax on companies with more than 100 employees if they fail to spend at least $3 per hour on health insurance for each worker.
According to the article, the measure is being pushed the state's left-wing "Working Families Party" (WFP). That third party, the article notes, admits the bill would carry a high price tag, but claims that "large businesses" can carry the expense:
The WFP acknowledges "Fair Share" would cost at least $2 billion - by adding $4 billion to businesses' costs and cutting taxpayer health care expenses by $2 billion."Someone is going to have to pay," party policy director Josh Mason said. "We think it makes sense, both practically and morally, for that someone to be those large businesses that are currently spending very little on health benefits."
However, the state's small business lobby claims the bill would cost employers $8.4 billion, the article notes.
That approach could have dire consequences for businesses, said Deb Warner, director of government affairs for the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce: "Some say they'll have to lay people off; some say they'll move out of state."
Despite the concerns that the measure will hurt the state economy, the paper reports that many lawmakers, including some republicans, are supporting the measure, in order to gain support from the labor-backed WFP in the November election.
> Choke on it New York -- you asked for it, you got it.
Thanks for your compassion, but this is not really helpful. Many of us don't vote liberal. We happen to be tied to NYC, which does.
Apparently, you've never heard of Ithaca, the City of Evil.
NYC is liberal, but nothing like a college town. A RINO like Bloomberg couldn't get elected dog catcher in Ithaca, on the theory he was too "right wing," but for years the town had an openly socialist mayor.
Other college towns are pretty similar.
NYC might be liberal, but it has a moderating influence from Wall St.
College towns do not.
............amen, brother, amen...!
could not agree more.... left Upstate Noo Yawk about 40 years ago and never looked back.... it seems that in the intervening 4 decades, the People's Democratic Republic of New York has become a true hell for the average working stiff. I cannot imagine how much it must cost to live up there now; from the looks of this article, things ain't gonna get any better any time soon....!! Remember; Noo Yawk State's official motto: Excelsior! "Ever upward" - yeah, especially in taxes, the costs of living there, etc.!!
Yep. College towns. But Silicon Valley is close to Stanford and Berkeley and SF.
Problem is all that displaced tax revenue WILL be sucked out of somewhere else - the employee's pockets. Even if NY stops harrassing businesses into oblivion (which the current would-be governor is doing a marvelous job of: raising revenue by filing ransom-type suits), the exodous of residents fed up with overtaxation & overregulation leaves few left to do the actual work.
NY also calls itself "The Empire State" - and lives up to the moniker.
Upstate needs its own state.
While we still have some folks left.
My view of the thing is that states have three choices:
A)They can either race to the bottom in terms of salary and wages. This is a battle that isn't only destructive, but one that they can't entirely win since they're also competing against Third World wages.
B)Develop some unique industries, such as gambling in Nevada or oil in Alaska.
C)Develop some real infrastructure that is of use in the 21st century. That means high-tech stuff like bio-engineering, nano tech, etc. etc.
I've lived in NY all my life. The only large cities I've ventured into are Buffalo and Syracuse. I got out as quick as I could both times, it's much nicer living out in the sticks which is NY's best kept secret.
After this is pushed through the next tax increase will be to cover the cost of erecting a fence or other barrier to prohibit its citizens (or is subjects a better word?) from moving out of New York. The appetite of the liberal welfare state must be fed at all costs.
I doubt that it's the majority of native born New Yawkers, at least for the males.
It's nice to see that someone else recognizes at least one aspect of the phenomena. Besides all of those who were born overseas, New York, especially THE CITY, like other big cities, attracts all the dregs and left wing weirdos from the rest of the country.
State-to-State Migration Is Linked to Cost of Housing among other reasons. IMHO, it seems "red" states are getting more red, and "blue" states are getting more blue. The political activism of the left is relentless and driving this self segregation. The right should at least give back to the left its traditional color, red.
Thanks for your compassion, but this is not really helpful. Many of us don't vote liberal.
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It wasn't meant to be helpful -- it was meant to say to voters like yourself, you had better start working on those liberals who like to pay confiscatory taxes and live in a repressive socialist environment. Maybe you should send them a bill to pay for the socialist taxation that Chuckie and Hitlery are putting on you.
Are they going to call it the New Jersey development plan? I suspect a lot of firms will gradually head out of NY.
you will never get any kind of tech business growth in that part of NY state - the weather alone kills it as being a nice place to live.
of course, you've got it exactly backwards. people have been saying that for years. the tax revenues from the NYC metro area - fund the rest of the state. the wages and incomes and economic activity in NYC, keeps everything else going. the amount of construction activity in NYC right now, is astonishing.
they should have allowed gambling upstate decades ago.
I don't know about not getting high tech growth upstate. Depends on how you "market" the weather. Is it a frozen hell where the salted streets eat away the undercarriage of any car ever constructed and folks shed blackened toes and fingers like autumn leaves from frost bite? Or, is it a winter wonderland of ski slopes and sledding?
That's the plan of all socialists. Drive out all small and mid-sized businesses. Then, it is easier to regulate the few giant conglomerates. There is a word for state regulation of giant corps. Didn't Mussalini try it? And a few others?
yitbos
I don't think there's an actual plan -- it's just that small companies have little to no clout in Albany.
The one thing this will do -- for better or worse -- is keep more money "in state." NY regularly gets the shaft in terms of return on money sent to Washington. And I've heard rumblings on the far left of something called "tax parity" for years. So maybe they've finally figured out a way to back door the issue.
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