{"id":1077,"date":"2009-09-24T07:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T11:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/09\/24\/are-new-york-and-the-north-country-drowning-under-costs-of-government\/"},"modified":"2009-09-24T07:54:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-24T11:54:00","slug":"are-new-york-and-the-north-country-drowning-under-costs-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/09\/24\/are-new-york-and-the-north-country-drowning-under-costs-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Are New York and the North Country drowning under costs of government?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I interviewed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/story\/14411\/business-leader-say-cost-of-government-shackles-north-country-economy\">Garry Douglas<\/a> today, with the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber, co-founder of a group called Unshackle Upstate.<\/p>\n<p>He says rising taxes and fees are stifling the economy in the North Country and New York state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is an unsustainable scenario that is shrinking the ship of state,&#8221; Douglas argues.<\/p>\n<p>Douglas&#8217;s arguments are really two-fold:<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is absolutely byzantine how many local governments and taxing jurisdictions we have,&#8221; Douglas says.  &#8220;We could probably do with one tenth of them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t just about paying lower taxes.<\/p>\n<p>For the lines to converge, New Yorkers will probably need to settle for far fewer government services. <\/p>\n<p>And government workers will probably have to settle for wages and benefits more in line with their private-sector colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>(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.)<\/p>\n<p>What do you think?  Is business as usual the way to go? Or d you agree with Douglas that we&#8217;re nearing &#8220;a total collapse&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>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?<\/p>\n<p>Comment welcome below.<\/p>\n<p>(This is an issue people feel passionate about, so remember your manners.  Argue, debate &#8212; don&#8217;t denigrate&#8230;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I interviewed Garry Douglas today, with the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber, co-founder of a group called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}