The current economic model we have in this state and this area sets high barriers of entry to small and medium sized businesses, but more easily welcomes large outfits into our state and area. The taxes, regulatory burdens, bureaucratic red tape and confiscatory property taxes make it hard for middle class small operators to open or function here, in comparison to other locales.
The middle-class owned company that makes widgets and has 16 employees can do a lot better in a state like Tennessee or even Pa. New York makes it brutal to try to get a ball rolling here and if it weren't for the local reverse robin hood incentives (Metroplex, IDAs, Empire Zone breaks) no one would want to speak to us about setting up shop here. Once you are in business you get hounded to death and nickled and dimed into obscurity by the agencies like the state department, DEC, Labor, and local, regional and state bureaucrats. Then you get the honor of having to fill out state surveys, forms, reports, and tax returns, pay tax on your company even when you are losing money, and then find that you are dealing with a population with a lower median income than Appalachia. Let's not even get talking about crime and disrespectful local city dwellers that are likely to vandalize o steal your property when you turn the other way for 2 seconds!
For big business, this is often a good thing: They have the staff, the lawyers, and the cash to circumnavigate the muddy waters, and it often means that the "small guy" won't be a pesky thorn in their side. Do you ever see Walmart complain about any of it?
For some of us, we stay because (no matter what the political opposition says) we actually live here and have loving families here we care about and care for. And for some of us in the "middle"- when they are all gone to the other side, there may not be as good a reason not to hightail it out of here and leave the place to the PhDs, the welfares, and the grayhairs. |
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