“I don’t like the income tax. Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of ‘from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs’. That’s socialism. It’s written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what’s happening to him.”
- Thomas Coleman Andrews
I live in New York State. Along with California, our state government is facing huge budget problems. We have some of the nations highest taxation levels and growing unemployment. Our state is depopulating as people move down south and out to the mid-west where taxes are lower, state government is smaller, the cost of living is cheaper and there are more jobs. How then shall we solve the problem of overburdened taxpayers and businesses? Cut costs and reduce the size of government perhaps? No, how about a new tax on non-diet sodas instead?
By now it should be clear that Governor Paterson is in way over his head. When Eliot Spitzer stepped down he was thrown into a position he just wasn’t prepared for. The job of Lieutenant Governor is essentially that of an understudy. Yes you preside over State Senate sessions, but the important task, the one that really requires and demands that you prepare for it, is that if something happens to the governor you need to be able to fill that role. He obviously wasn’t ready, and his, “try something and hope it works,” policy will only leave us with policies that further cripple our state.
Though I do have one good thing to say about the plan. Paterson’s newest political campaign spot sure is catchy.
