New York State to Consider Closing Parks

Not good news. We all know that New York State is financially strapped, and the signs of bankruptcy have been evident for years; New York State government has had years to resolve the problem, but hadn’t. Now, suddenly, the state wants to slash everything. In the big scramble to remain solvent, Governor Paterson is considering closing several state parks and historic sites across the state (mostly Upstate). This is from Jim Walter, Executive Director at Madison County Tourism:

New York State’s tourism promotion budget has been slashed 27% under Governor Patterson. The Governor has proposed cutting another 30% from the state tourism budget for the upcoming fiscal year. On top of that the Governor has proposed merging the Matching Funds Grants which fund local tourism promotion ($58,000 for Madison County Tourism last year) with the overall tourism promotion effort led by Empire State Development’s division of Tourism. This would effectively eliminate the tourism grant program and cut Madison County’s marketing efforts by 32% in 2010.

It’s a really stupid move to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. New York State has promoted it’s amazing tourist attractions for years, and now suddenly they want to shut parts of it down?! New York State should turn this around, and make some lemonade out of lemons. The economy isn’t only affecting state government, ya know! It’s affecting everybody! So that means that people are traveling less extensively, and staying in the local region more. But people still need to take breaks, so it’s obvious that we will look to local tourist attractions and parks for those breaks. The state is really doing stupid thing. The state needs these parks, has a vested financial interest in keeping them. It is reported that more than 53 million people visited state parks in 2009! In 2008, tourism in New York generated $7 BILLION. More importantly, we taxpayers NEED these parks. Paying all these super-high taxes and living among such acrimonious government isn’t very fun, you know. It’s a little soothing to know that at least SOME of our taxes goes toward something else besides paying the heating bills at Gracie Mansion and for the billions of people on Medicaid. :-p

If we New Yorkers need to do a little more on our own to keep things like this afloat, so be it. For example, have school children go on “community clean up” field trips where the kids visit a park and clean up the park as well. Or, reduce waste such as printing fewer of those bloated, extraneous brochures that clutter up the visitor’s centers. Moreover, why can’t the state cut the extraneous expenses elsewhere that produce little to nothing in profit? Such as the bloated administrative jobs in government offices and schools?! I don’t see why we have to cut back on everything that benefits us, and the government doesn’t cut back on their salaries or perks.

It has historically been the “New York way” to make things very unpleasant when the state sees sour times. Look at the financial problems that New York State has been having for the past 15+ years: rather than make New York State a more attractive place to live and do business, the government raises taxes, adds burdensome regulations, creates “fees,” and essentially drives out anyone who may have considered staying in or coming to NYS. When things are bad and people are leaving, don’t make things worse by raising taxes, closing the little pleasures of life, and driving out the rest of us! Making life more miserable in New York State will not help anything. STUPID!

Northern Hospitality

I saw this somewhere and it make me laugh.

And I cried, too. lol

We may as well adhere “Kick Me” signs on the backs of all the residents here; that’s what the NY government and excessive regulation is doing to us, anyway. No wonder NYers are so grouchy…

I Live in the Tax Capital of the World!

Not that I am bragging. :-p

Happy Tax Day to all my fellow Americans. As some of you know, in my profile information under “occupation,” I have “New York Taxpayer” listed. It’s a full-time job. I saw this story at the Wall Street Journal.

Like the old competition to have the world’s tallest building, New York can’t resist having the nation’s highest taxes. So after California raised its top income tax rate to 10.55% last month, Albany’s politicians leapt into action to reclaim high-tax honors. Maybe C-Span can make this tax competition a new reality TV series; Carla Bruni, the first lady of France, could host.

They can invite politicians from the at least 10 other states that are also considering major tax hikes, including Oregon, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, Arizona and New Jersey. One explicit argument for the $787 billion “stimulus” bill was to help states avoid these tax increases that even Keynesians understand are contractionary. Instead, the state politicians are pocketing the federal cash to maintain spending, and raising taxes anyway. Just another spend-and-tax bait and switch.

In New York, Assembly Speaker (and de facto Governor) Sheldon Silver and other Democrats will impose a two percentage point “millionaire tax” on New Yorkers who earn more than $200,000 a year ($300,000 for couples). This will lift the top state tax rate to 8.97% and the New York City rate to 12.62%. Since capital gains and dividends are taxed as ordinary income, New York will impose the nation’s highest taxes on investment income — at a time when Wall Street is in jeopardy of losing its status as the world’s financial capital.

It’s a great article. It also shows how New York as the “Empire State” is not always a good idea. I don’t really relish being a resident of the “leader” state that is swirling down the toilet, sucking all the other states with it. Here in New York, we’ve been crying for “change” for decades. The only change we get is what’s left in our pockets, after shelling out the big bucks for the bloated bureaucrats and their pet projects. :-p

New York Tourism Update

I’d wondered how New York State tourism was faring, especially with gasoline prices and rising taxes here in the state. I think 2008 will turn out to be a bust for tourism because of high gas prices and everything else that goes along with it. Looking at tourism for 2007 I see good news, but I also see a caveat:

A recent report from the Empire State Development Corporation says tourism spending statewide grew by $51 billion in 2007. That’s a 9% increase over the previous year.

The report says most of the spending — more than $42 billion — occurred in the eastern parts of the state. Of that amount, New York City accounted for nearly $32 billion in tourism spending.

State tourism officials say the weaker dollar played a big role in the boost in tourism last year. Visitors from overseas spent 15% more in 2007 and Canadian visitors spent 11% more.

I find it interesting that the eastern part of the state saw the most tourist activity. That tells me that Upstate New Yorkers are, for the most part, staying home or close by, but people from Downstate (New York City and area) have been traveling up into Upstate (which is the eastern section of the state). Downstate is where all the money is, and the Upstate eastern section of New York State is where most Downstaters have their rural resorts. So while the news might be “good” because it shows an increase in tourism dollars and more foreign visitors, it also tells us that the remainder of Upstate New York is suffering. Of $51 billion dollars, only $10 billion was generated in the rest of the state?! That’s awful. Resident New Yorkers don’t seem to be doing as much traveling as we used to, it’s just too expensive. It’s a shame that it has to take a weaker American dollar to get more visitors, too. We’re “outsourcing” our tourism, now, too?