OntheWilderSide

A tip of the hat to Elizabeth Benjamin of the Daily News for linking to the Golisano story in her blog of daily political news: here.

KW: Tom Golisano is moving to Florida. He writes in the NY post that he has been taxed out of New York. Full article is: here. Excerpt at the read more.

Golisano is a “mixed bag” for me politically. I have to admire the fact that he has worked so hard (and spent so much of his own money) on third party politics. Though, he is more conservative than me, and he has sometimes been in competition for the votes of enrolled greens–some of whom looked past his politics and saw him as some kind of rich hero who might win over the duopoly.

Though, for good or bad, Tom Golisano has certainly been a player in New York third party politics. Wikipedia notes:

He is a founding member of the Independence Party of New York. He ran for governor of New York in 1994, 1998 and 2002 as the candidate of the Independence Party. Although he lost each time, he increased his percentage of the vote. He spent a combined $93 million on the three campaigns.[1] In 2002, Golisano challenged New York Governor George Pataki as the candidate of the Independence Party. By receiving more than 50,000 votes each time, Golisano brought the Independence Party an automatic ballot line for the succeeding four years.

Hmmmm…Perhaps if Golisano is still interested in shaking up the New York Governor’s race with third party politics, he might consider giving some money to the Green Party candidate in 2010? Stranger things have happened…

(excerpt from) The NY Post
Adios, New York
Taxed Out of the State
By Tom Golisano

I LOVE New York. But how much should it cost to call New York home? Decades of out-of-control budgets, spending hikes and relentless borrowing have made New York simply too expensive.

Politicians like to talk about incentives — for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immediately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state…

My thoughts on Golisano’s conclusions regarding taxes: I do agree that New Yorkers are taxed too highly and too unfairly. One round of observing it (and starting to address it) was in Nassau County, Long Island, where they looked at all the “special districts” like water and sewer districts, where only a thin veneer of elections few knew about allowed people to have family dynasties and unaccountable tax hikes.

Also, I think that there should be a rule in New York that school budgets should be presented to voters as “menu item”, with various categories to have control over. Instead, the community is asked to vote only YES or NO to a tedious plan already hammered out, fluffed up, and agreed to by the administration and teachers unions. If the community had choices such as “Do you vote yes or no to increase sports fees?”, “Do you vote yes or no for a 3% increase in teachers’ salaries?” “Do you vote yes or no for a 3% increase in administrators’ salaries?”, then school budget votes would be more fair and more empowering.

I am not a traditional liberal. I do not think that everything will be better if we dole out money to fund and empower government to get everything done. I think that it is just as important to monitor the government, make the government accountable so that they don’t fluff up budgets and redirect funds, and don’t let the government get too big, take over areas it should not, and duplicate services. In those ways, I probably agree a bit with Tom Golisano. (Though, I swear to my green and progressive colleagues that I never voted for him.)

Filed under: 3rd party, elections, grassroots democracy, Green Party, New York State Politics, News, politics, progressive politics, rants, third party Tagged: | 2010, Governor, Green Party, new york, school budget, taxes, Tom Golisano