Guest Op-Ed: Climate of Uncertainty for Businesses
By Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-C, Bay Ridge, 60th District)
Unseasonable temperatures aren’t the only thing wrong with New York’s climate lately. Ask a current or prospective Empire State job creator and he’ll tell you that an atmosphere of sky-high taxation, stifling regulation and European-style labor laws has combined to create the worst climate for starting or operating a business in the country. Actually, the second worst — that’s the latest finding of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation’s “2012 State Business Tax Climate Index,” a study examining the effects of taxes in the 50 states.
The top performers in the index invariably had clear, straightforward tax systems that generated sufficient revenue while promoting competition and entrepreneurship. The losers offered their job creators complex tax codes with soaring marginal rates, which kept unemployment high and reduced expansion. By measuring the effect its corporate, income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes have had on job creation, Tax Foundation analysts ranked New York second to last in the nation in tax-friendliness, right above perennial job-killer New Jersey. Our ranking is unchanged from 2011, when only California bested New York in its ability to scare employers away and punish those who remain.
Life would be easier for New York’s job creators and their employees if the Tax Foundation’s findings were simply the stuff of academic debate. They’re not. In the last decade, we have seen the real world consequences of Albany’s anti-business philosophy. Other states are gaining population — and the human capital, innovation and, yes, the tax revenue that comes with it — at New York’s expense. According to the Empire Center for New York State Policy, between 2000 and 2009, nearly 60 percent of the roughly one million who left our state moved to the South. Florida, which absorbed a third of this emigration over the same period, ranks number five in business climate. As it turns out, Albany does support one business: the moving company.