Albany has been described as an alternate universe, a place totally disconnected from the concerns and realities of everyday New Yorkers. The just-ended 2015 legislative session looked like an exaggerated parody of that characterization.
Except it was all too real.
The problems confronting New York are simple and clear: We spend too much; we tax too much; we regulate too much.
But you’d have no idea that’s the case based on Albany’s 2015 priorities. New York greeted the New Year as an overweight, artery-clogged patient complaining of chest pains. Albany rushed it into cosmetic surgery and sent it on its way.
Sure, some important issues — like mayoral control of schools, for example — were temporarily hashed out.
But they were perennial housekeeping matters. What good is dusting the top of the refrigerator when there’s rotting food inside?
What were missing were the bold, brave, forward-thinking chess moves to make New York economically relevant again. We got pawn play — a crackdown on nail salons? Really? — instead.
If Albany is an alternate universe, Gov. Cuomo is master of its galaxy. The language he’s using to describe the 2015 session is downright delusional.
The session was “fantastic,” he says. The routine extension of rent regulations, “the best law in the history of the state of New York.”
When I ran for governor last year, I tried to point out the objective truth about New York’s standing as a state. We lead the nation — but in all the wrong categories.
We have the highest property taxes in America; the highest overall taxes; we spend more on education than anyone and get middle-of-the road results; we have the highest Medicaid costs — more than Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania combined — and the second-highest energy costs.
We’re at the bottom of the barrel in “business climate,” and we have the worst economic outlook in the country, according to one key survey.
Unsurprisingly, given all that, we’re rated as the worst state in the nation in which to retire, and we lead the nation in people moving out.
Virtually nothing Albany did this year will address any of those liabilities.
Without a Republican Senate, they would’ve been made even worse. Even the property-tax-cap renewal came without promised mandate relief, meaning that school districts and municipalities will be forced to charge taxpayers more.
Albany funded Cuomo’s START-UP NY ad campaign for another year, so we’ll be able to see more feel-good commercials.
But here’s the reality, as I warned in 2014 and as Democratic State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli just revealed in a blistering report: After more than $53 million in TV advertising, START-UP has created just 76 new jobs — around $700,000 per job.
I knew that running against a first-term incumbent would be an uphill task last year, but I had hoped that the conversation I had with the state would help frame the debate about our future. It did not under this governor.
I called for simplifying the income-tax code and cutting the top rate from 8.882 percent to 6 percent for New Yorkers making more than $200,000 annually and to 4 percent for those making less. I called for repeal of the state’s utility tax and an end to the estate tax that chases money out of the state.
I proposed cutting the corporate tax rate from 6.5 percent to 5.9 percent to spur investment and job growth.
And I called for natural-gas extraction in New York, something the EPA just declared safe. That alone would put tens of thousands back to work and create billions in revenue. Cuomo banned it.
I also called for state term limits, but it almost goes unsaid that nothing happened there.
New York ranks highest in another important category. Once again, our state government was rated the most corrupt in America. If you want to know what that costs us, just look at everything New York didn’t do this year to move our state forward.
Rob Astorino is Westchester county executive.