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Generalissimo Cuomo

Submitted by Jim Davies on Mon, 2014-03-24 08:13
in

Right on cue, CNBC appears to have picked up on my remark that small governments are easier to walk away from than big ones; "Hate paying taxes? Then consider a home on the range, and keep as far away from New York as possible" they say in The Best and Worst States for Taxpayers.
 
New York Governor Cuomo has been spending a lot of taxpayer money recently on TV ads. A key theme has been that businesses are being offered a ten year tax holiday for relocating to Cuomo's domain. Odd; if tax freedom is that good, why limit it to ten years?
 
Just recently, though, the ads have struck a new note. Now, he's campaigning to "lower" property taxes by forcing an unusually large number of local governments to "work together."  If you can swallow that, make me an offer for my bridge in Brooklyn.
 
This is a blatant grab for more central power.
 
 

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Jim Davies's picture
Comment by Jim Davies, posted on March 24, 2014

CNBC drew their report from original research by WalletHub; details here. It's a good effort, but on taking a closer look I can see some frayed edges.
 
Examples: (a) New Hampshire ranks 28th, not #1 or in the top few, as I'd thought. Looks suspicious. In particular it fails to list NH as being free of income taxes; news to me. (b) The methodology assumes an individual lives in a home worth the median $174,600, but I'm not clear how they handle the common practice of a family living in such a home. Wouldn't that mean the individual slice, for two adults, is $87,300? Further: $174,600 will buy you a lot of house in rural areas, but only a rat-infested slum in NYC. So this guide is not all-encompassing.
 
For all that, Wyoming and Nevada look very good.

 

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