Once again, New York has found itself on the bottom of several major tax rankings, highlighting why so many residents have left the state and why our economic recovery will be an uphill climb. According to a report from the Tax Foundation, New York has the worst Tax Freedom Day — a hypothetical day that represents how long it takes to relieve residents of their tax responsibility. The Empire State also has the third-worst business tax-climate index.

These rankings represent real problems, and the effects are startling. The most recent round of Census data confirmed what we had suspected for a while, that ongoing population loss will cost us a seat in Congress. This diminishes our representation and influence in the federal government. 

New York has consistently ranked near the bottom of virtually every business and tax-climate metric devised. Year after year, other states put drastically less financial pressure on their residents and small-business owners. According to the most recent data from the Tax Foundation, residents in states like Alaska and Oklahoma would be able to pay off their tax bill before April, yet in New York that date would not come until May 3. There is no state with a later date, and the national average is April 16.

Out of 50 states, our rankings for individual income tax, sales tax and property tax rates are 48, 43, and 45, respectively. The Assembly minority conference has called for tax relief year after year, but those calls have been ignored by legislative Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who instead would rather dig the hole deeper with their seemingly limitless tax-and-spend agenda.

In fact, even as the state’s out-migration problem has worsened, the Democrat-driven 2021-22 enacted budget that was recently passed comes with both a corporate tax hike and new, permanent taxes on high-earners. The final spending plan includes $3.7 billion in tax increases this year and another $4.4 billion next year. We’re going in reverse, and Democrat leadership’s plan to address the problem is to ignore it and hope it goes away.

There is no excuse for a $212 billion budget, which puts our spending on par with California, a state that has twice as many people as New York and represents roughly the same amount as the Texas and Florida budgets combined. The impacts of this fiscally irresponsible spending plan are not going away anytime soon. If New York is going to reverse the massive out-migration it has experienced in recent years, these ranking are going to need to improve, plain and simple.                       

William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us. 

The phrase “the common good” and its importance in our history has always impressed me. I’ve been wondering about the history of the idea — where it comes from, what it means, and the impact it has. The concept goes back a long way.

Aristotle wrote about forming governments to achieve security, justice, and other benefits for all people in a community. He saw the common good as a basic principle of ethical thought. St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas saw the common good as conforming human society with God’s plan.

Enlightenment philosophers examined the meaning of the common good, and their ideas influenced America’s founders, who embraced the term as they established a new nation. They believed a strong constitution and republican form of government could protect the common good from the abuses of rulers and the threats of factionalism.

In foreign policy, the concept of the common good often strengthens the national interest. If the nation is strong and respected, the thinking goes, it can better protect the welfare and common good of its citizens. We enter alliances with other countries to avoid conflict and safeguard the common good of ourselves and our allies: for example, the NATO alliance for mutual defense and America’s 75-year peaceful relationship with Japan. We try to concern ourselves with the common good of people around the world, which is threatened by climate change, nuclear-weapons proliferation, and other risks.

Some argue that our sense of the common good has been shrinking. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, author of a 2019 book titled “The Common Good,” said America has been stuck for five decades in a cycle of individualism. He argued that Americans born in the first half of the 20th century lived through experiences that created a sense of mutual dependence, such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Those experiences forged a social contract in which individuals looked out for others. Many embraced Robert F. Kennedy’s idea that there was “something fundamentally noble” in public service.

But the civil-rights movement made clear that our conception of the common good didn’t extend to all Americans. For many, the Vietnam War and Watergate fueled a rejection of the concept of the common good and a deep distrust of government. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” 

In Reich’s view, business leaders once took responsibility for the wellbeing of their employees, but a new generation of CEOs saw their duty as maximizing shareholder value. For decades, wages stagnated for average workers while earnings skyrocketed for those at the top. In politics, we have experienced extreme polarization, scorched-earth campaign tactics, and demonization of opponents. Many claim we live in social-media bubbles, communicating only with people with whom we agree. The common good has had no meaning for them.

But events keep reminding us of what we do have in common. The 9/11 attacks shook Americans and showed our vulnerability. We looked for ways to strengthen the common good with a renewed emphasis on securing ourselves with more surveillance and screening.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed tensions between our rugged individualism and our concern for the common good, as the virus has killed nearly 600,000 Americans. We learned to wear face coverings in public, postponed gatherings with loved ones, and queued up for vaccinations. We did these things to protect ourselves and others for the common good.

[I believe] President Joe Biden promotes a view of the common good that improves access to education, health care, and economic opportunity. His Republican critics respond with the view that the common good thrives in an environment of lower taxes and less regulation. Although their approaches differ, it’s positive that both sides are showing their basic commitment to promoting the common good.

Lee Hamilton, 90, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.