Are New York and the North Country drowning under costs of government?

I interviewed Garry Douglas today, with the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber, co-founder of a group called Unshackle Upstate.

He says rising taxes and fees are stifling the economy in the North Country and New York state.

“It is an unsustainable scenario that is shrinking the ship of state,” Douglas argues.

Douglas’s arguments are really two-fold:

1. To maintain the kinds of services we enjoy in New York, we need a thriving private sector to pay all the taxes. Yet the private sector is eroding rapidly.

2. To offset some of the loss of state revenues (Gov. Paterson is now predicting another $3 billion deficit) New Yorkers need significant wage and benefit concessions from government workers.

Douglas points out that local governments (the ones we North Country folks control) have been just as profligate in their spending, triggering property and sales tax hikes.

“It is absolutely byzantine how many local governments and taxing jurisdictions we have,” Douglas says. “We could probably do with one tenth of them.”

This isn’t just about paying lower taxes.

For the lines to converge, New Yorkers will probably need to settle for far fewer government services.

And government workers will probably have to settle for wages and benefits more in line with their private-sector colleagues.

(According to Unshackle Upstate, government workers in the North Country earn nearly a third more in wages and benefits than comparable workers in the private sector.)

What do you think? Is business as usual the way to go? Or d you agree with Douglas that we’re nearing “a total collapse”?

Is it appropriate that many government workers are receiving 3% pay increases at a time when the private sector economy and private sector jobs are shrinking?

Comment welcome below.

(This is an issue people feel passionate about, so remember your manners. Argue, debate — don’t denigrate…)