As state lawmakers hem and haw over Gov. Cuomo’s property-tax cap, a new poll last week showed that more than one of every four New Yorkers is headed for the exits.
Indeed, more than one in three New Yorkers under the age of 30, some 36 percent, want out, the survey by the exemplary NY1/YNN-Marist pollsters found.
“Unchecked,” says Marist’s Lee Miringoff, “this threatens to drain the state of the next generation.”
Overstatement? Detroit lost a quarter of its population between 2000 and 2011; absolutely, it could happen here.
Indeed, Buffalo already lost 11 percent over the past decade. Overall, the state’s population grew slower than all but three other states.
What don’t folks like about New York?
A whopping 62 percent cite economic factors, like the high cost of living, insufficient jobs and — yes — high taxes (which, by the way, feed the other two).
That’s no surprise, actually. New York leads the nation in state and local levies, with property taxes right at the top:
* The 15 counties with highest property taxes in the nation, as a percentage of home value, are all in New York.
* Nassau and Westchester are the two most heavily taxed counties in America, in absolute dollars.
* The state’s median property tax is almost double that of the nation.
Meanwhile, the huge burden on businesses — which pay five times as much in property taxes as in corporate-income taxes — drives away investors. And jobs.
With workers, particularly young ones, not far behind.
Clearly, New Yorkers need relief — like Cuomo’s proposed 2 percent cap on yearly property-tax hikes.
But the Legislature is resisting. It’s more interested in pleasing teachers unions (which fiercely oppose the cap, as property taxes go largely to their members) than doing right by New York.
Yes, the Senate passed Cuomo’s cap. But it did so disingenuously: Majority Leader Dean Skelos knows full well that one-house bills go nowhere in Albany, that it’ll take a three-way deal — between the Senate, Assembly and governor — to see a cap become law.
Yet he insists on all or nothing.
Ensuring that taxpayers get . . . nothing.
This will keep the teachers unions — and, thus, his members — happy, while allowing Skelos to pretend to fiscal rectitude. It’s a breathtakingly cynical ploy, even by Albany’s debased standards.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver promises his own cap — knowing full well that the Senate has no interest in any cap. So Silver can also talk tough with no fear of offending the unions.
The gridlock points to yet another reason so many New Yorkers may be headed across state lines: They view Albany as dysfunctional — and corrupt.
Just last Friday, the latest in a never-ending line of lawmakers to be criminally convicted, ex-Sen. Vincent Leibell, drew 21 months for a kickback scheme.
And wouldn’t you know? Lawmakers are also balking at Cuomo’s ethics bill.
Albany will never redeem itself, and keep New Yorkers in New York, until it gets serious with ethics reform. And caps taxes, as Cuomo proposes.
We intend to do our best to see that it does just that.