Actually, I am a resident of Rochester and I understood the title intuitively. Rochester is far (6 hours+) from The City. I was from Buffalo before that, even farther away. I am used to hearing about odd laws that only apply in NYC (the boroughs), from special conditions on a learners' permit license, to bans on 16+oz fountain drinks, when I hear "now illegal in New York" I tend to think naturally, it must apply only in New York City.
We are actually second-class citizens, the legislature of NY is only for NYC (and the benefits of all the taxes we pay, union dues, etc, at least to hear my father tell it.)
I wouldn't go as far as second-class citizens, NYC is less than half the population and, correspondingly, less than half of the districts. There are a lot of NYC-specific taxes and tolls collected. Hell, Republicans controlled the state legislature until a year ago or so (and you know they weren't from NYC).
If I had to guess (I used to be in politics), your dad spends a lot of time complaining about property taxes -- I can guarantee those don't leave your municipality.
I am pretty sure he's more interested in payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, welfare dollars, Obamacare. I won't pretend I've read the ledgers, but when he texted me yesterday to say '49 states left', I hadn't heard about the devastation in Oklahoma and I started scanning the internet tubes to find the news that Texas finally seceeded over Obamacare.
Well, those are federal issues, so it sounds like his problem is the fact that Obama's president rather than anything to do with new york state. I'd also hypothesize that he was much less upset about these issues in December 2008 than he became starting in late January 2009.
There's NY, ranked right behind NJ as #49 for second least favorable state business tax climate. That's right. Worse than California for business owners. I have no idea of the legitimacy of this graph, it only took 10 seconds of Googling to find it.
Not saying anything about Upstate vs The City, but my dad has lived in NY for near to his whole life, he's actually from Long Island, and (what do you say next? we have Jewish friends?)
It's easy to say they're federal issues, but NY has reasonably high sales tax and income tax, and yes there is property tax. If you're from New York, you wouldn't argue that we're not highly taxed. I happen to be near enough to the poverty line, recent college graduate, high student loan debt, good payment record, so I only know what they want me to see insofar as taxes go. I fill out TurboTax and usually get most of it back.
I've actually received larger income tax returns than what I paid in total, once or twice, with no plausible explanation other than "Dad paid for it," so you'll have to understand, I am influenced / biased also based on that.
Yes, conservative think tanks will always put NYC/Cali as the least favorable business climate. But where's the business? Here. Cali.
I live in NJ, I work in NY, so I got 49 and 50 going strong here. I can tell you, and you'll have to just trust me on this, business is better here than in Alabama or Arkansas which have much better 'business climates'.
You received higher tax returns than what you paid because of the earned income tax credit, a socialist wealth redistribution scheme to benefit low-income workers that would never pass if today's political conservatives had to vote on it. Your dad and I both helped pay for it.
Actually NYC pays for itself, and upsate sucks money from Long Island and Westchester, whether you account by where you live or where you work:
(This is by where you live)
$Paid $Recd Pop
Capital Region 3.8% 7.0% 4.2%
New York City 45.1% 40.0% 42.9%
Downstate Suburbs 27.4% 17.7% 21.7%
Rest of State 23.8% 35.2% 31.2%
We are actually second-class citizens, the legislature of NY is only for NYC (and the benefits of all the taxes we pay, union dues, etc, at least to hear my father tell it.)