Common Sense: Just say no

The number of companies expanding, moving operations back to the United States, and awarding bonuses continues to grow as a result of the GOP tax reform legislation. In addition, the financial community — which in most cases held back on what is expected to be large, possibly historically large bonuses until the lower personal income tax rates go into effect — will over the next few weeks be paying out billions of dollars beyond 2016 bonuses.

Many of these bonuses will be awarded to New York State residents or individuals who work in the state on Wall Street. This will result in a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for New York State and a lesser degree New York City without the need to raise taxes.

This is a point that Governor Cuomo failed to take into account when he presented his dire state budget balanced on as many new taxes as he could think up. The governor also ignored the fact that many other non-financial New York companies like JetBlue and AT&T were issuing their own large special bonuses with planned New York State expansions and hirers.

The end result will certainly be over a billion in new revenue, plus future gains from capital investments and employment.

The governor also claimed that the federal tax cut legislation would result in a $4 billion state budget deficit. When pressed, he could not detail this key number. And of course, all of his solutions were predicated on new taxes, not new priorities coupled with some spending cuts.

If Governor Cuomo is not careful, he will cause an exodus of more business and people out of our state. There is no longer a need for a business to choose between Mexico or Canada. The new United States economy makes many states more appealing.

Those states are primed, if Governor Cuomo has his way, to take our businesses, the resulting jobs and the people who hold those jobs which would be a true spiral to disaster for New York State

Fortunately, the New York State Senate Republicans immediately said no. Actually, it was the one word answer the Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan gave when asked if the Senate Republicans could support a tax increase. NO!

State Senator Marty Golden (whom I serve as chief of staff) followed suit with his own strongly worded statement in opposition to state tax increases and the elimination of job-producing incentives.

***

Anyone who questions the existence of pure evil in the world should read up on David and Louise Turpin, the California couple arrested for torturing their 13 children for many years. An article in the Washington Post begins, “What started as neglect, became dangerous and pervasive child abuse over the years.” Sadistic maltreatment might be a more accurate description.

In an internet age when all sorts of stories of extreme abuse from around the world come into our homes, this horror is a standout. All of the children were at times starved and some shackled for long periods of time by their parents. Many of the 13 had little to no contact with the outside world.  The charges include 12 counts of torture, one count against David Turpin of a lewd act on a child, seven counts of abuse against a dependent adult, six counts of child abuse/neglect and 12 counts of false imprisonment.

If found guilty of the dozens of charges, the couple face 94 years to life in prison.  I would think they also face eternal damnation.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.