Submitted by Former Western New Yorker in Manhattan, Jan 3, 2007 01:27

I am one of those upper class finance types and I refuse to put my hard earned capital into real estate in NYC. I actually grew up in Western NY and saw the corporate inertia and ever growing bloated infrastructure that the democratic legislature kept fueling. It is easy to raise taxes in times of plenty but when you create such an unsustainable bureaucracy you create a situation that will develop into our ever present welfare state when you have employment recede as it has done for the last several decades.

New York State can learn a lot from England. They created the pride and joy model for social programs, health care and education during their hey day only to see it crumble when their empire vaporized. The jobs went elsewhere as did the tax base but the costs to sustain their welfare state were still present. Like NY, the only major revenue generator is London and its capital market. London is now owned not by the British but by the rich international investors including the Russians, Arabs and other multi-national corporate interests. Even my friends in finance can't afford real estate in London..I think it is foreboding that NY is the Empire State...a good deal of hubris and pride goeth before the fall as they say since England's economic empire dissappeared just as NY's has and all that is left is the remnants, the capital market.

On a side note, I had a major deal that had nearly 500 high paying biotechnology manufacturing jobs associated with it and that needed to look for a site to locate. The company was not even thinking about NY due to the legacy of high taxes and costs. Instead of putting the best package together and working together to bring these manufacturing jobs that most of Western NY is in desperate need of , the state turf monkeys, also known as Albany bureaucrats, spent their time trying to push the deal to some of the worse parts of the state from a workforce and development standpoint in order to reward political loyalists. The problem is that the real talent has left NY or leaves NY and the NYC residents who make money in NYS are sick and tired of subsidizing a very bloated Albany government that mismanages the needs of people in upstate who need help. I pray Mr. Spitzer fights the good fight and holds Mr. Silvers and Mr. Bruno and the the legislature accountable or else, the Empire State will continue to suffer the same fate as the British Empire...

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