A rant about New York

[RUSHtheBUS]

Sorry about posting this here. I wont get upset it this thread is deleted, moved, or locked. I just have to unload a bit about this wonderful state in the union.

In the past week, this state's unelected governor has unleashed his budget on us. Here are some of the well thought of details.

A raise in "gasoline" tax. This state has one of the highest taxes on fuel in the union. Most likely only second to Hawaii. I have seen an average retail price of RUG on Long Island of $1.89/gal. Diesel is around $2.99/gal. I have not heard if he plans on raising tax on D2.

Property tax. We can say good bye to our STAR rebates. That's a rebate on school taxes for property owners. Just to let you get an idea of the kinds of taxes home owners pay, my parents pay about $25,000/year. Sixty percent of property tax is school district taxes. Property tax for someone owning a home and making $50,000/yr average about $10,000.

Our governor has just signed a bill to tax cigarettes sold on Navtive Amercan reservations by $2.25/pack. I'm waiting for the Dept. of the Interior to reverse that law.

Now get this one, he is going to tax non-diet soft drinks by 15% That's right, your Pepsi will now be 15% higher then diet Pepsi.

A new tax on hair cuts, iPod and video game downloads. That's right kids, you now have to pay tax.

The mayor of NYC wants to tax people $.05/shopping bag you use from a store.


I live on Long Island, the government of New York City is planning to tax my car $100/registration period to pay for things in NYC.

A toll to cross a city bridge or tunnel is $4.50 each way. One bridge, it's $11.00, though you only pay one way. Where the hell is all that money going?

Get this one. LIPA, the eletric company for Long Island, is raising it's rates because people have cut back so much on their power, the company isn't making what it used to and now has to up the cost to the homeowner. I pay, on average, $160/month.

Yes, New York residents are in store for 88, that's right folks 8-8, new taxes, fees, and surcharges in the new budget.

Yupper, New York is such a wonderful place to live. At least when the last Governor screwed someone, he paid for it. And yes, I think the skit on SNL was hilarious.

 

[SnowCub]

You know when I moved to Massachusetts from NYC, I always thought it was hilarious how much people here complained about taxes. They had no perspective. Compared to NYC (8.25%), Mass was cheap. My insurance quote when I tried to register my '90 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX in Brooklyn, NY was $8,700. And people in Mass were complaining about their high regulated insurance rates. HA.

And then there's this article in the Times about rat infestations:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1866594,00.html

I convinced my best friend to move up here from Queens, NY. Even with the power outage, he still likes it. Come on up!

 

[tdidieselbobny]

I think he is a stupid blind idiot.He also wants to increase welfare payouts,and make more people eligible-brilliant-how are we going to pay for it? Too many social programs,not enough cuts in them.I guess he wants EVERYONE on welfare,at the rate he is taxing everything.He also wants to issue new license plates,raise registrations,raise gas tax.Pataki tried to tax the Indians back in 97-they set up fires on or along the Thruway(I-90 goes through a reservation south of Buffalo)-this state is really sucking the big one.The STAR rebate check was nice,as long as they don't cancel the STAR property tax exemption for school taxes-they take $30k off your assessment for the school taxes only(not the county/town tax)-that saves me around $600-$700/yr.

 

[dieseldorf]

Come on up!

I luv it!

 

[lofranco]

I moved to Jersey from Texas. Don't get me started on how much I absolutely F'ing hate this part of the country as far as state governments and taxes go.
As far as I can tell the extra taxes go to pay off the corrupt politicians and unions. I'm not getting any better services, i.e. roads, schools, utilities ect. than I was getting in TX for free.

 

[eliass]

I think NYC has too many negatives going against it and it looks like 2009 it will get even worse, I think 2009 is the year that real estate prices will come back down in NYC. I think the 50 Billion that Madoff blew is going to do some damage.

 

[carnotgas]

One Positive

He wants to make it legal to sell wine in grocery stores. I am all for that.

 

[RUSHtheBUS]

Except if you own a licquor store. It will kill your shoppe

 

[BolaB4V]

NYer's have taken a beating lately-some random/rammbling notes regarding upstate and downstate.
-NY property taxes often exceed mortage payments
-DEA is already rounding up smugglers at the Canadian boarder with no end in sight
-troopers seem to be putting the squeeze on motorists looking for revenue w/not that much to squeeze from population
- a tax on cigs. on sovereign territoriy- will be interesting to watch when the gov. tries to oversee and collect (this will be a BIG issue to watch in the future)
- people already left in droves in the 90's, where's the tax base?
- fat tax on soda?.. Albany is one of the most heaviest lobbied capitols in the States, Pepsi and Coke will have the last word on that.
Some of the things NY is in trouble for are the millions of dollars Albany dumps into NY City (and Albany itself), the world trade centers expense, the SUNY system and Private colleges, and grant money for everything. This Goverment screwed up (less the WTC's) and Joe Six Pack gets left with the tab.
just read where paterson bought a $21,000 persian rug out of the general fund! Say what? not setting a good example
He'll get tripped up like Spitzer,
The local shcool system in my town will see a 12% drop in state aid- my taxes will be going up again!

 

[rocketeer928]

I thought there wasn't supposed to be any politics on this forum. How about we stick to TDI events and issues, and maybe we can forget NY and Washington politics for awhile.

 

[n8ronJ]

rocketeer928 - You've got my Jetta twin! Well, except for the mods. How is the driving difference from unmodded to modded? Someday I'll have the cashola to trick my Jetta out. Curious - what's the difference in clutch feel going to the G60/VR6 clutch?

 

[jakeflag]

Understatement award alert!

I think the 50 Billion that Madoff blew is going to do some damage.

I think you might be on to something.

 

[DannyboyUpstate]

Hrm... I love NY state. I'll stick it out, but there's a lot of young people bailing. Gentrification will have the final word here. In Upstate especially.

2 comments:

BolaB4V: For the amount of state business that goes on here, hardly any money from the state is given to the City of Albany. I live here...

lofranco: Yeah, that's right, NYS gives labor unions money. Get it together.

 

[aja8888]

Come to Texas where the taxes are not nearly as high as New York!

I remember living in Connecticut in 1981 when there was NO State income tax. Boy, how things have changed back east!

 

[hevster1]

I moved to Jersey from Texas. Don't get me started on how much I absolutely F'ing hate this part of the country as far as state governments and taxes go.
As far as I can tell the extra taxes go to pay off the corrupt politicians and unions. I'm not getting any better services, i.e. roads, schools, utilities ect. than I was getting in TX for free.

Here is the question and please do not take this the wrong way, if you aren't better off why not move back or elsewhere? Besides 2 stints in CA and CO I lived here all my life. I despise our corrupt political system. It is where the money is though, at least for me. I made far far less in CO as did my wife (she made only a little over minimum wage in both CO and CA). I had less respect in my profession as did she. In CA I made the same hourly rate but there was no guarantee and I consistently made well under 40 hours a week (I was a master technician for Toyota then) because there was no work. We came back to NJ and made far more immediately with much better benefits. For us there was and still is no choice. I wish I could afford to live in CO now. I don't see how anyone can considering the housing prices. It is worse there than here and you still make way less.

 

[lofranco]

Here is the question and please do not take this the wrong way, if you aren't better off why not move back or elsewhere? Besides 2 stints in CA and CO I lived here all my life. I despise our corrupt political system. It is where the money is though, at least for me. I made far far less in CO as did my wife (she made only a little over minimum wage in both CO and CA). I had less respect in my profession as did she. In CA I made the same hourly rate but there was no guarantee and I consistently made well under 40 hours a week (I was a master technician for Toyota then) because there was no work. We came back to NJ and made far more immediately with much better benefits. For us there was and still is no choice. I wish I could afford to live in CO now. I don't see how anyone can considering the housing prices. It is worse there than here and you still make way less.

Hevster,
No worries,
I think Jersey is quite a beautiful state with the exception of Exits 12 and 13.
I complain because I was born and raised in a state with no state income tax, very few no toll roads, low housing prices/property taxes, I can turn left without having to turn right first, right to work state, I can pump my own gas, ect......

I work for the "G" and this is where I was sent. I may be able to get out sometime in the next 10 years or so. Until then I'll just have to suck it up. Maybe I'll get used to it. Time will tell.
Matt

 

[BolaB4V]

Come to Texas where the taxes are not nearly as high as New York!

Ahhh Texas..spent a good part of my youth growing up between Dallas and Ft. Worth-allways missed it! When my family moved back to upstate NY it felt like we had moved to Siberia...but NY toughens you up..

 

[aja8888]

Come to Texas where the taxes are not nearly as high as New York!

Ahhh Texas..spent a good part of my youth growing up between Dallas and Ft. Worth-allways missed it! When my family moved back to upstate NY it felt like we had moved to Siberia...but NY toughens you up..

After 15 years here in Texas, I feel like I left Siberia (CT)! This place kind of grows on you....(not knocking any other U.S. States - they are all better than any alternative).

 

[Lug_Nut]

When between jobs I had head-hunters continually asking if, because of my history of work in New England, I was a native New Englander.
"Yes, why?"
"New Englanders are the least likely to relocate."

With all the travel I did over 15 years of field service work, there are perhaps three places I've been that I'd even consider as potentially calling 'home'.
Texico, despite its physical size and diversity of terrain and what passes there for 'culture', doesn't cut it. I'm staying put.

 

[aja8888]

Seems like living in CT for as long as I did (30+ years) stays with you. people here in TX still ask me where I am from because of my *accent*. I have a friend from Texarcana (confluence of TX, AR & Louisiana). His accent is so strange I can only undestand about every third word he says .

But the Boston folks really stick out here as none of the natives (yes, there are some that are NOT from Michigan) can understand a word they say.

As far as Lug's statement about New Englander's relocating, that is very true. I can't get my sisters who live in the same houses in CT for the last 40 years to even come and visit me. They say that a trip to New york is an event you plan for weeks in advance. To go as far as Texas is a planning a real event. Ditto with my CT friends. I seem to be the only one who *escaped*, so to say.

 

[aja8888]

But the taxes will kill you... no matter where you live here.

Connecticut. The silent death of the working poor.

Yes, that alone is the biggest thing that changed (taxes) in CT since I lived there (except for the traffic on Route 84 leaving Waterbury on a daily basis!).

 

[lofranco]

People don't leave the north east because it's such a PITA to get anywhere.

I went back to TX last week to go to a friends graduation. We drove the 180 miles from Ft. Worth to College station in 2 and a half hours. No traffic, no accidents, no tolls.....

I drove from Hartford to NYC (100 miles maybe) one evening and it was a 4 hour beating!

I don't even like leaving my house when I get home from work because I don't want to deal with the congestion.

 

[rocketeer928]

rocketeer928 - You've got my Jetta twin! Well, except for the mods. How is the driving difference from unmodded to modded? Someday I'll have the cashola to trick my Jetta out. Curious - what's the difference in clutch feel going to the G60/VR6 clutch?

I didn't notice a huge difference in the feel of my clutch while driving. When I'm waiting at a traffic light with the clutch pushed in, I can feel the pulsing rotation of the new flywheel, but it's not a problem. I've been very happy with all of my mods, and they certainly make a difference in hp and torque.

 

[rocketeer928]

Yes, that alone is the biggest thing that changed (taxes) in CT since I lived there (except for the traffic on Route 84 leaving Waterbury on a daily basis!).

The taxes here in CT are definitely challenging. I don't understand how anyone young and on the lower end of the average household income and the non-wealthy elderly/retired can live here. My town's yearly property taxes (house and cars) have doubled in 7 years, which is outrageous!

My wife and I have many years before retirement, but I can't imagine staying in CT once we do. Right now, the thought is to retire in the middle of New Hampshire somewhere. Much too expensive and liberal in CT for my taste long-term.

I do have to say though, that many areas of CT are very pretty, especially in the spring and fall.

 

[ibanix]

Except if you own a licquor store. It will kill your shoppe

Come to california. We've got plenty of both. I can buy full wine and hard liquor in grocery stores, and we've still got plenty of liquor stores.

 

[hagar]

I lived in Rochester NY for 5 years, and escaped to AZ first chance I got. Never looked back, and nothing on earth could convince me to move back there.

 

[ibanix]

The taxes here in CT are definitely challenging. I don't understand how anyone young and on the lower end of the average household income and the non-wealthy elderly/retired can live here. My town's yearly property taxes (house and cars) have doubled in 7 years, which is outrageous!

My wife and I have many years before retirement, but I can't imagine staying in CT once we do. Right now, the thought is to retire in the middle of New Hampshire somewhere. Much too expensive and liberal in CT for my taste long-term.

I do have to say though, that many areas of CT are very pretty, especially in the spring and fall.

I grew up in CT (Litchfield Hills, represent! or something). And I'm not sure why any young couples would -want- to live there. Compared to most other places, it is terribly boring.

However, with me approaching 30 and wanting to have kids, I'm starting to reconsider it. I do miss the snow and the trees in the fall.

 

[owr084]

Strange how no one has commented on New Yorkers' habit of electing and/or crowning US Senators with absolutely no qualifications at all except being the wife (hillary), brother (bobby), or daughter (caroline, or who knows, chelsea?) of a former president.

 

[Lug_Nut]

I don't even like leaving my house when I get home from work because I don't want to deal with the congestion.

Oh yeah! Thanks for the reminder. I forgot about the mold spores on the gulf and the dust everywhere else. Hand me a tissue, will ya?
Hartford to NYC is easy. Dallas to Fort Worth? Now THERE'S a traffic horror story.
Let's see if I still hold my 'there but for the grace of God go I' attitude when the next 10 inches of snow are dumped on me tomorrow night and my power STILL isn't back on from last week's storm.

 

[RUSHtheBUS]

Strange how no one has commented on New Yorkers' habit of electing and/or crowning US Senators with absolutely no qualifications at all except being the wife (hillary), brother (bobby), or daughter (caroline, or who knows, chelsea?) of a former president.

I didn't want to get too political, wanted to remain on the new taxes/fees that will be put on us. Let me tell you, there's outrage about that too.