With Homeland Security cutting New York's anti-terror funds it got me thinking about how New York seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to fed funding. It seems to me that because New York (state) votes Democrat in every single federal election, we are taken for granted. I can see why Republicans would not be interested in helping us - we never vote for them (on the national level). I can also see why we are ignored by the Democrats - our votes are in the bag. I came to the conclusion that the only way to get New York to count again is to abolish the Electoral College.

Any thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

I did not know that NY gets shafted with funding. What is the state tax system like?

 

Yeah, NYC never gets any attention at all. A real bunch of shrinking violets.

 

We have the second highest taxes in the country. State, city, real estate, school taxes are over 14% combined.

 

New York, Connecticut, Mass, and California are all donor states. They pay more into the federal coffers than they directly get back. Coincidentally, these are 'blue' states. Wages tend to be higher, as does the cost of living.

Mississippi (even before Katrina), Arkansas, West Virginia, etc are all recieving states. They get more back in federal money then they pay in. They tend to be poorer, and have a cheaper cost of living.

So if two ppl have an equal standard of living, the New Englander will have to get paid more dollars, and therefore will be in a higher tax bracket. So they will pay more into the federal govt even though they have the same living standard as the Alabamian.

And this brings me to federal taxes and funding. The rich states pay more taxes and it is redistributed to the poor states. To paint with a broad brush, the voters in blue states don't seem to have a problem with raising the taxes on rich individuals (Bush tax cuts, Alternative Minimum Tax, NYC income tax, etc), so they shouldn't mind that thier state's pay more taxes than the poor states. The bulk of the 'rich' live in blue states because of the way these things are determined, even though 60k doesn't go as far in Manhattan as it does in Mississippi.

Further, the Democratic party seems to be more willing to tax, which means that the blue states will suffer disproportionantly and pay more revenue for the govt to waste on whatever is the topic of the week.

 

New York, Connecticut, Mass, and California are all donor states. They pay more into the federal coffers than they directly get back. Coincidentally, these are 'blue' states. Wages tend to be higher, as does the cost of living.

Mississippi (even before Katrina), Arkansas, West Virginia, etc are all recieving states. They get more back in federal money then they pay in. They tend to be poorer, and have a cheaper cost of living.

So if two ppl have an equal standard of living, the New Englander will have to get paid more dollars, and therefore will be in a higher tax bracket. So they will pay more into the federal govt even though they have the same living standard as the Alabamian.

And this brings me to federal taxes and funding. The rich states pay more taxes and it is redistributed to the poor states. To paint with a broad brush, the voters in blue states don't seem to have a problem with raising the taxes on rich individuals (Bush tax cuts, Alternative Minimum Tax, NYC income tax, etc), so they shouldn't mind that thier state's pay more taxes than the poor states. The bulk of the 'rich' live in blue states because of the way these things are determined, even though 60k doesn't go as far in Manhattan as it does in Mississippi.

Further, the Democratic party seems to be more willing to tax, which means that the blue states will suffer disproportionantly and pay more revenue for the govt to waste on whatever is the topic of the week.

Crazyquik,

Have you read "Rich State, Poor State, Red State, Blue State: What's the matter with Connecticut?"

Pretty much explains what you just stated.

Cheers

 

No, sounds like it might be a bit like "What's the Matter With Kansas?"

I also have an old book from a university's poli sci library called "Working Class Tories" which is a similar story as the Kansas book, just a different country.

 

All those Southern states tried to solve this problem for the Yankees 145 years ago, but y'all wouldn't let it alone.

Interestingly, the poorer Southern states lead the nation in per capita charitable donations.