Buffalo Rising Online

I'm insane? I can't write?

Well, I'm sure glad I said yes when BR asked me if they could re-publish my blog post. (This was a blog post not a research paper.)

Is that what you learned at UB, to call people insane when you disagree with them?

I majored in philosophy there and tried to learn the rudiments of a logical argument.

When someone makes an actual argument here or cites a relevant fact, I'll be back to have a civilized dialogue.

Sorry James... but you lost me with this:

"First, the fact is that Upstate is a colony of Albany, which is just another name for the New York City Metropolitan area. Since we are their colony, we can assume that they perceive this relationship to be beneficial to them." (the Albany-New York City Metropolitan area connection I just don't get)

I'm not usually a commenter that rips on people for their grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. But I just don't know where your points or facts are in this "article" because I cannot follow. I can't follow it and, therefore, cannot have an actual argument.

And don't take too much offense to these comments... we aren't so much disagreeing with your post, but are disagreeing with BR putting it on here as a submission (due to lack of quality).

Anyway,

I think the report should include the growth deficit in Upstate caused by a state that gears regulation toward downstate circumstances.

"Albany" refers to the state government. That's a common, ordinary use of that word.

Without knowing the actual numbers for how much money in contributed to the state based on county via taxes any of these arguments could go either way. But I tend to agree that when possible the political clout that is downstate wins when it comes to policies.

Laws that are good for NYC are not necessarily the same as Law that are good for Buffalo. But in those respects NYC wins.

Look at the Niagara Power Project. There were some News articles about it a couple months or years ago that talked about even with the lost of some insane percentage of power it is still sent downstate to subsidize housing and their transit system. How about our transit system? Does the NFTA get access to this power. If so why don't we just have all electric buses and really make a huge environmental difference. I love how they would rather waste energy on transmitting it than let us use our own resources. Instead what do we get? Two of the most polluting coal powerplants in the entire state.... How about putting one of those plants on Long island where you don't have the falls. Why must we have it? Niagara Falls generates more than enough energy and could be expanded for WNY needs. The only reason we have coal powerplants around is because politicians didn't want them downtstate. And that isn't fair and just one example of probably many of the inconsistencies between policy and region.

"Albany" refers to the state government. That's a common, ordinary use of that word.

No I get that Albany refers to the stat gov't... I don't get what you mean by "Albany, which is which is just another name for the New York City Metropolitan area".

Albany is not considered within the NYC Metropolitan area. Is that what you were trying to say? That paragraph just makes zero sense.

"Albany" refers to the state government. That's a common, ordinary use of that word.

No I get that Albany refers to the stat gov't... I don't get what you mean by "Albany, which is which is just another name for the New York City Metropolitan area".

Albany is not considered within the NYC Metropolitan area. Is that what you were trying to say? That paragraph just makes zero sense.

Damn... how can this site be so un-user friendly? Whatever programming system they used for this site is awful as it is very unresponsive and constantly leads to repeat posts.

And I'm not an idiot that doesn't understand technology just clicking buttons incessantly here... come on BR, step up your game. You are no longer viewed as a simple community blog... you are a business with employees, advertisers, and customers. And if you don't take care of simple functionality issues like this, your customers (ones that are pretty loyal and WANT to use your product) are going to stop coming!

The fact is that the State of New York is over-taxed, poorly run, and inherently inefficient. I beleive that all New Yorkers have the right and obligation to complain about the tax burden and where their money is spent. The taxes have been a long standing discussion for the people of New York, and every year we are informed that the next wave of politicians will cut them, but every year we see a budget that increases at twice the rate of inflation. We see the creation of more specialized authorities that have absolutely no concern for the people of New York, it is all about political patronage that is paid for with our tax dollars (see Thruway Authority as relevant example). The problem here is that we accept this as business as usual for the State of New York, we don't question our taxes or demand change, instead we sit back and pay the increases every year. I am not sure why we don't see this as a problem, my theory is that we each collect enough specialized services from the state that we are afraid to complain for fear that those things that are close to our own self-interests will be cut. Perhaps it is the feeling that we are all getting screwed, so eventually someone else will lead the charge for change and we will jump on board when that happens. I don't know what it is, but in my time in New York, my yearly contribution to state and local taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, special use fees, registration fees, one-time charges for services, etc, have all increased at a pace that far exceeds inflation, yet the services that I receive are being reduced including funding for parks, schools, roads, commercial investment, etc.

To mirror Matthew Crosson's sentiments above: As a taxpayer, I feel like I am paying more to the state than I get back in aid and services. At what point will we see real change in Albany? At what point will our politicians realize that it is prohibitive to do business in the State of New York, and it is prohibitive to live in the State of New York. There are other options available to businesses and residents, and many of them are exercising those options by moving out of the State instead of fighting for change.

"The fact is that the State of New York is over-taxed, poorly run, and inherently inefficient."

Now, were getting somewhere.

That's true and has resulted in 50 years of decline for Upstate. But NYC Metro is thriving. So, since they control the state, they refuse to do anything about Upstate's plight. (And I don’t mean sending up some corporate welfare for Pete's sake.)

We are trapped in the same state as the world's economic capital.

Because it's a world capital, NYC just shrugs off the burdensome taxes and regulations that kill lesser cites like Buffalo.

There is no political roadmap to breaking away, but that doesn't change the fact that separation is only logical solution.

A good recent example of Downstate’s control—Brian Higgins told us we were going to get a locally-controlled authority for the Canal Zone. Nope, it’s controlled from Manhattan, a fact that Free New York exposed. And lots of the contracts have gone to Downstate firms.

Can I end a sentence with “to”? I always get a kick out of “word sniffers.”

“The pen must at length comply with the tongue.” (Samuel Johnson)

sally, do us all a favor and write a better article.

You can tell who is from downstate, they all walk around campus with the smolinski smerk.

Wow that was fast! It looks like Paterson is reading your work Jim.

Silicon firm plans 500-employee plant in Niagara Falls

"The reopening is aided in large part by a 40-megawatt allocation of low-cost power from the New York Power Authority approved today. Globe also will get a boost from about $25 million in state Empire Development Zone benefits tied to job creation.

"In these fiscally tough times, these are the kind of collaborative investments of state resources we must strive to bring to local communities throughout New York," Paterson added, noting the aid underscores his administration's commitment to bolstering the upstate economy."

Jim - Stop trying to combat these people, you'll never win.

UnionAMG - You're right, this site does suck when it comes to load times, efficiencies, and posting. It took me 5 minutes just to log in to write this. I'll talk to Newell about this soon.

Sally - Hilarious!

Where is Damp to think of something witty in situations like these to calm everyone down?

Freeasinbeer--I think you would split off Long Island, NYC and two or three of the Northern suburbs. Perhaps the point where the high NYC cost of living ends would work.

Not as political impossible as you might think. You would take one blue-leaning state and make one solid blue state (but with a Rep. mayor) and one red-leaning state. That shouldn’t change the US Senate too much.

Tony - I heard Damp was banned from commenting because of something he wrote.

Where is Damp to think of something witty in situations like these to calm everyone down?

Also I've noticed a few others seem to have disappeared. Maybe they all just lost interest here, ormaybe got tired of waiting for pages to laod, or maybe some others were Damped too. I have no idea.

This is not a new debate! We heard the same thing about Northern Virginia (Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington, Prince William Counties) carrying the rest of the state financially. I listened to the same thing while living in Western Colorado (all our money goes to Denver), and the same thing in Georgia (if it wasn't for Atlanta, the state would die). There are two sides to this argument and neither one is correct. There is a reason that we have states, dividing them up is like splitting a football team into positions. It is great for practice, but you don't get anywhere when you have to compete in the game. The entire State should work together instead of holding these discussions that only serve to create animosity.

Could you be more specific?

New York City is thriving and Upstate is not. We suffer from high taxes and burdensome regulations that do not plague the city the same way because of its status as the world's capital. For example, people come to NYC in droves to make a name for themselves in a hundred different fields and are willing to tolerate the high cost of living there.

We in Upstate lack the political power to force changes though a state government controlled by Downstate interests. For that matter, we lack the power to kick out our own politicians even after years of their poor performances. (Quick, how many WNY state legislators have lost an election in the last fifty years?)

What’s your solution?

As I said in my blog post, there is a part of the state that is working together, the political class. The Downstate and Upstate political class works together for their own mutual benefit while the rest of suffer.

Why don’t the rest of us work together? Political scientists know the answer: rational apathy.

http://www.ncee.net/news/story.php?story_id=65

All - I talked to Damp today - it's true he was banned from posting. Apparently if you say anything anti-BRO you get banned (which sounds a bit Nazism, but its not my site and I don't make the rules) so please watch what you post.

yea, I have not seen him on here anymore - thats too bad - I thought he added a nice change of pace to the posts

I love the way the one who calls himself "eliotspitzer" challenges not only Jim Ostrowski but Rothbard too. There's some vast monetary holes in your arguement. Under the fractional reserve system the bank barrows from the FED and creates new money. If the bank borrows $1Mil, it turns that money magically into $10Mil and loans it out and collects interest on it. Poor bank, I wish I could run a racket like that. How can you lose unless you're a complete idiot and start lending money in the subprime market to people who have no way to pay the loan back when the interest rate jumps and property values decline?

How does inflation benefit the debtor? The debtor can't create magic money like the fractional reserve bank. How can the debtor possibly benefit from the destruction of the purchasing power of his dollar? He's paying back his loan in devalued currency but he's poorer too because the present buying power of his dollar has been destroyed by monetary inflation.