Opinion

Driving NY down

Slowly, inexorably, New York proceeds into the slough of fiscal despond.

The latest evidence: Figures released yesterday from the 2010 Census re-confirm a longtime trend: The US population is fleeing to the South and West, where taxes are lower and the business climate more friendly.

At the front of the parade is the Empire State, which will lose two congressional seats — bringing its total to 27, the lowest number since 1823.

Thank tax-and-spend government for that unhappy news.

After all, folks follow the jobs. And businesses that create those jobs go where money can be made — and kept.

Here are the ugly details: Since 2000, New York’s population grew at a paltry 2.1 percent, versus 9.7 percent nationally. As a result, New York not only loses those two House seats, it’ll also miss out on billions in federal cash.

The slip is in line with a decades-long, nationwide trend: Since 1940, America’s population has been steadily shifting from high-tax states, like New York, to low-tax states, like Texas and Florida.

New York alone lost a stunning 18 seats over the past 50 years.

Here’s why: The state’s tax burden leads the nation, discouraging business. Property taxes in Westchester and Nassau counties are America’s highest.

Spending has careened out of control. Hundreds of billions have been lavished on massive entitlements — with little to show for it.

Most problematic: At the first sign of trouble, the politicians boost taxes, fur ther discouraging investment and job creation in New York.

No wonder the state faces a $10 billion hole next year — and billions more in red ink in the years thereafter.

Stopping the bleeding will require a major reversal of a decades-old political mentality that seeks to soak the rich and handcuff business to please special-interest groups — unions, lawyers, radical environmentalists . . .

Albany, which is set for new leadership in 10 days, will need to deal with its budget gaps quickly — but not through traditional quick-fix tax hikes or corrosive borrowing.

It will need to show deference to job-creators — like the natural-gas industry, which seeks to drill in Upstate’s Marcellus Shale, as is legal in every other state, but banned here. (Upstate drilling alone can generate thousands of jobs.)

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo says he won’t let taxes rise, that he’ll get spending under control, once and for all.

Here’s hoping.

Someone needs to save New York.

If Cuomo can’t — or won’t — do it, decline seems all but inevitable.