Sunday, May 23, 2010

How Would New Yorkers React to Economic Austerity...?

My previous posts entitled Greece: What Economic Austerity Looks Like and How Would Californians React to Economic Austerity...? have generated pointed reactions from readers. However, one reader sent me an interesting note saying that the fiscal situation in New York is far worse than in California. Thus, I am now asking New Yorkers to respond to the same question I asked Californians: Assuming the US had to bailout the State of New York, how would New Yorkers react to a bailout plan that included the same economic austerities that the EU/IMF forced upon Greece...?

State Seal of New York

Keep in mind that the "Greek plan" would transpose into the following specific austerity measures for New York:
  • Reducing effective wages for state workers by 5-15%.
  • Banning pay increases for state workers for at least 3 years.
  • Raising the state sales tax by 2%.
  • Raising taxes on fuel, alcohol, and tobacco by 10%.
Reactions welcome...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would prefer to see the austerity happen in more effective ways.

Most New Yorkers are already carrying a big burden. If you work in Manhattan and take public transportation in to Manhattan to work, for example, you still pay for parking at the train station, sometimes as much as $300/month, you pay for a train ticket in to some destination point that still requires a subway ride to get to the office. Your commute alone can cost more than $500/month and you are paying triple taxes besides.

Outside of Manhattan, our sales tax is enormous. Stay in a hotel for example and you can pay 20% in taxes on top of the cost of the room and don't assume this is a vacation situation. We just did this in order to be near the hospital when my husband had surgery 100 miles from home.

When there are no more places to cut in the budget, what do you cut then? I don't know.

There aren't luxuries left to trim in my budget. They are all gone already.

Susan

We are willing to tighten our belts. We seem to do that a lot. I just don't know what else one can cut.

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